Information Technology Solutions for Healthcare

Chapter 1, Evolution of IT-enhanced Healthcare: from Telemedicine to e-Health, introduces the concept of telemedicine, including definitions and requirements of telemedical systems. The evolution of contemporary telemedical systems and challenges faced by future technologies are also shown. Additionally, this chapter reviews speciality-specific applications, including formal and legal aspects of telemedicine as well as its acceptance among users. An important item is the cost/benefit analysis of telemedical services. Chapter 2, Access Technologies in Telecare, overviews access telecommunication technologies. Basic requirements for such communications are considered, both in the hospital-to-patient scenario and the hospital-to-hospital scenario. The available and emerging solutions are also briefly presented. Chapter 3, Internet Technologies in Medical Systems, presents the requirements and architectures of Internet-based medical systems, with focus on Internet telemedical services, Web services and portal technologies. The next-generation point-of-care information systems are also described and the shift in the methodology associated with medical systems to suit new software architectures is analyzed. As a case study, the TELEDICOM system for collaborative teleradiology is presented. Chapter 4, Security and safety of Telemedical Systems, describes the requirements related to this important area, analyzing them in the context of legal acts affecting the security of e-medical systems. Subsequently, security system architecture modelling and techniques for securing e-medical systems are described. Chapter 5, Wireless systems in e-Health, focuses on modern wireless technologies. Security aspects and wireless interference issues are discussed. Wireless hospital and telecare applications are also described and the requirements for mobile access from PDA devices to medical databases are considered in more detail. As a case study, a wireless emergency system is presented. Chapter 6, Relevance of Terminological Standards and Services in Telemedicine, describes medical terminology standardization on several levels of granularity and overviews existing classifications and momenclatures. As a case study, this chapter presents the TOSCA Project dedicated to establishing a common terminology. Chapter 7, Electronic Health Records, describes the progress in constructing a common set of data structures contained in medical records and reports on the main standardization efforts in this area. The Electronic Patient Record has fundamental significance for the implementation of medical information systems and telemedical applications. Chapter 8, Decision Support Systems in Medicine, covers knowledge-based and expert systems which support physicians in making medical decisions by providing interactive tools. A classification of such systems is presented and their internal structures and architectures are evaluated. Several classes of expert systems are described and compared. Chapter 9, Health Telematics Networks, briefly describes the requirements and architecture of telematics networks and the organizational models for such networks. It also overviewes e-health network services available over the Internet. Chapter 10, IT Applications for Remote Testing of Hearing, presents innovative telemedical systems for sensory self-diagnostics over the Internet. The preconditions and structures of successful nationwide programs based on these systems are also described. Chapter 11, Model of chronic care enabled with information technology, defines the scope of the problem, describing Web-based and telemonitoring solutions as the most commonly used technologies in the area. Subsequently,

The idea of publishing the book on the use of information technology for improvement of healthcare delivery systems from the PRO-ACCESS initiative (ImPROving ACCESS of Associated States to Advanced Concepts in Medical Telematics, IST-2001-38626) focused on the better access of new associated countries (now countries accessing European Union) to modern e-health technologies developed in leading European centers.The book brings a comprehensive view of all those areas in which application of computer and telecommunication technologies have or will have in near future extensive impact on the quality and availability of health care services. It is addressed to broad audience of readers representing health professionals community, related professional environment, managers and policy-makers focused on health maintence problems.The PRO-ACCESS initiative focuses on creating a platform for promotion, dissemination and transfer of advanced health telematics concepts and experiences from development and deployment of telemedicine solutions to NAS. To achieve this, a Centre of Competence will be established to broaden the formula of the Krakow Telemedicine CoE existing in Poland, in order to coordinate publishing activities, events, trainings and intake of solutions from cooperating partners within EU and NAS. The main impact of the Centre will be a substantially improved awareness of state-of- the-art medical telematics technologies in NAS. The Krakow Telemedicine CoE will be thereby strengthened by increasing its networking with leading RTD centres in EU and NAS, and by training of research and professional staff of the Centre and target user groups of e-health solutions developed in the CoE.