Telemedicine: Commission adopts plans to help doctors and patients access healthcare from a distance

“Today, the European Commission adopted a Communication to support and improve access to telemedicine for EU citizens and healthcare professionals across Europe. In response to a call for action from Member States, this initiative aims to increase and broaden telemedicine services, including diagnosis, treatment and monitoring at a distance across Europe. Such services will allow, for example, a patient suffering from a rare retinal disease to be diagnosed in his hometown by a specialist working at a European Centre of Excellence for eye diseases located thousands of kilometres away. Patients with chronic heart failure will be able to have their disease more closely monitored and to enjoy better quality of life while staying at home. The European Commission proposes 10 actions to address the related challenges in the years to come.”
Article
HealthTechWire, 4 November 2008

ICMCC Event Preview 3

The second part of the Monday also has 2 sessions, each having 2 parallel tracks.

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Researchers develop mobile diagnosis system

“A new system to transmit medical images via mobile phones has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Developed by Yissum, the Hebrew University’s technology transfer company, the system provides an independent data acquisition device (DAD) at a remote patient site where users have no image display capabilities. The device is then connected to a hardware control multiserver unit at a central site via mobile phone technology with an advanced image reconstruction capabilities, with the processed data then returned to the DAD site.”
Article
eHealth Europe, 15 May 2008

Talking Up A New Role For Cell Phones In Telemedicine

“After launching a communications revolution, cell phones are talking up a potentially life-saving new role in telemedicine — the use of telecommunications technology to provide medical diagnosis and patient care when doctors and patients are hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Researchers in the United States and Brazil describe development of a simple, inexpensive telemedicine system that uses ordinary cell phone cameras to collect medical data from patients and transmit the data to experts located offsite for analysis and diagnosis.”
Article
Science Daily, 5 May 2008

A Tele-Medicine Service over Satellite Network

Abstract:
The main objective of paper is to describe a proposed tele-medicine pilot is for establishing a telemedicine network in a Private Healthcare Organization, to be developed in the frame of the ESA project, HOST . The HOST program focuses on the development of the Hellas Sat commercial offering in end-to-end satellite telecommunication services for supporting the delivery of bidirectional (broadband) applications in Greece, the Balkans, SE Europe, and the Middle East. To this effect a satellite broadband network will be implemented and operated 5 remote sites, three of them acting as trainers and the rest two as trainees The pilot system will allow real time exchanges of medical records to aid tele-diagnosis, co-ordination of medical and administrative processes, tele-assistance using videoconferencing; distant medical equipment or medical records (images and examinations, allergies, medical history, etc) monitoring and real time tele-diagnosis by specialized medical doctors on remote sites.
Thomas Pliakas^a, Serafeim Dermeitzoglou^a, Christos Papachristos^b, Artur Krukowski^a
a Intracom Telecoms S.A. (tpli@intracom.gr, sdei@intracom.gr, krukowa@intracom.gr)
^b Hellas Sat S. A. (c.papachristos@hellas-sat.net)

To be published in “Medical and Care Compunetics 5″, IOSPress, 2008.
To be presented at the ICMCC Event 2008.

Experimental Study of Fuzzy–Rule Based Management of Tropical Diseases: Case of Malaria Diagnosis

Abstract:
The application of the conventional symbolic rules found in knowledge base technology to the management of a disease suffers from its inability to evaluate the degree of severity of a symptom and by extension the degree of the illness. Fuzzy logic technology provides a simple way to arrive at a definite conclusion from vague, ambiguous, imprecise and noisy data (as found in medical data) using linguistic variables that are not necessary precise. In order to achieve this, a study of a knowledge base system for the management of diseases was undertaken. The Root Sum Square of drawing inference was employed to infer the data from the rules developed. This resulted in the establishment of some degrees of influence on the diseases. Using malaria as a case study, a system that uses Visual Basic .Net development environment was developed and the results of the computations are presented in this research.

Okure U. Obot^a, Faith-Michael E. Uzoka^b
a Dept of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Uyo, Nigeria
^b Information Systems Group, Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Botswana

To be published in “Medical and Care Compunetics 5″, IOSPress, 2008.

Virtual Telemicroscope Permits Off-site Medical Diagnosis

“After nearly ten years of research and development, scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and Peking University in Beijing were awarded a United States patent for their virtual telemicroscope. This patented software permits off-site pathologists to diagnose cancer or other diseases in patients living in remote locations around the world.”
Article
Science Daily, 28 March 2008

Siemens Says Integrated Diagnostics Tools Will Change Healthcare

“Thomas Miller has a vision for a new health care frontier that combines molecular imaging, molecular diagnostics, and informatics. Miller, who is CEO of workflow and solutions for Siemens Healthcare, says recent advances in these fields have created precise diagnostic tools capable of assessing and treating a growing number of diseases. These new tools provide physicians with an understanding of diseases at the molecular or genetic level, enabling them to tailor effective treatment to the individual. Digital HealthCare & Productivity recently spoke with Miller about how the health care IT network can become more efficient by using these patient-centric medical tools that transform data into knowledge.”
Article
Cindy Atoji, Digital HealthCare & Productivity, 11 March 2008

Web surfing isn’t just for cyberchondriacs

‘A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient,” said the legendary Canadian physician Sir William Osler.
Today, thanks to the Internet, we are all physicians. And potential fools.
All you need to do is Google your symptoms and, presto, you have a diagnosis. A few more key strokes and you have a course of treatment - thanks to products hawked aggressively online.”
Article
Andre Picard, The Globe and Mail, 28 February 2008

Computers offer breakthrough in Alzheimer’s diagnosis

“Computer software can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease from brain scans more reliably than clinical experts, new research published today by the journal Brain suggests.
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, were able to diagnose Alzheimer’s correctly using software that learned the difference between MRI brain scans of those with Alzheimer’s and those without the disease with accuracy as high at 96%.”
Article
Quin Parker, The Guardian, 22 February 2008

Siemens and National Jewish medical and research center form strategic alliance to advance shared vision of personalized medicine

“With a shared vision of a more personalized medicine, Siemens Healthcare and National Jewish Medical and Research Center have formed a strategic alliance to improve and develop novel imaging and diagnostic technologies using genomics, proteomics, and integrated research and clinical care.
As part of the initiative, National Jewish will integrate Siemens technology throughout out the institution to help diagnose respiratory, cardiac and rheumatologic diseases. Especially important will be the Institute for Advanced Biomedical Imaging™, where much of the patient care and collaborative research planned for this alliance will be conducted.”
Article
HealthTech Wire, 18 February 2008

Reliability of diagnoses coding with ICD-10

“Objective
Reliability of diagnoses coding is essential for the use of routine data in a national health care system. The present investigation compares reliability of diagnoses coding with ICD-10 between three groups of coding subjects.
Method
One hundred and eighteen students coded 15 diagnoses lists, 27 medical managers from hospitals 34 discharge letters, and 13 coding specialists 12 discharge letters. Agreement in principal diagnosis was assessed using Cohen’s Kappa and the fraction of coincidences over the number of pairs, agreement for the full set of diagnoses with a previously developed measure pom.
Results
Kappa values were fair (managers) or moderate (coders) for terminal codes with 0.27 and 0.42 (agreement 29.2% versus 46.8%), substantial for the chapter level with 0.71 and 0.72 (agreement 78.3% versus 80.8%). pom was lower for the full set of diagnoses than for principal diagnoses, for example in case of managers with 0.21 versus 0.29 for terminal codes. Best results were achieved by students coding diagnoses lists. In summary, the results are remarkably lower than in earlier publications.
Conclusion
The refinement of the ICD-10 accompanied by innumerous coding rules has established a complex environment that leads to significant uncertainties even for experts. Use of coded data for quality management, health care financing, and health care policy requires a remarkable simplification of ICD-10 to receive a valid image of health care reality.”
Article
Jürgen Stausberg, Nils Lehmann, Dirk Kaczmarek and Markus Stein, International Journal of Medical Informatics
Volume 77, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 50-57, doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2006.11.005

Diagnosis and treatment now a click-away

“Isabel Healthcare, a provider of diagnosis reminder systems, has partnered with Wolters Kluwer Health to provide clinicians with access to evidence-based medicine for both treatment and diagnosis.”
Article
Healthcare IT News, 16 November 2007

Success for e-mail eye diagnosis

“A pilot scheme which involves eye patients being diagnosed by e-mail has been given a top industry award.”
Article
BBC News, 12 November 2007

IBM Unveils Top Technology Innovations That Will Shape the Future of Healthcare and Life Sciences Over the Next Decade

“IBM today announced a series of emerging innovations that have the potential to dramatically shift the landscape of healthcare and life sciences solutions for patients, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and the general public. These innovations are based on new research breakthroughs and emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs as well as through a legacy of storage, server and technology innovation and deep roots in the healthcare industry.”
Article
CNN Money, 24 September 2007

For doctors, diagnosing gets a technological boost

“Stephen Borowitz of the University of Virginia Medical Center uses Isabel, which helps doctors with difficult diagnoses.”
Article
Erin Donaghue, USA TODAY, 5 September 2007

HEARTFAID: A Knowledge Based Platform of Services for Supporting Medical-Clinical Management of Heart Failure Within Elderly Population

Domenico Conforti, Domenico Costanzo, Francesco Perticone, Gianfranco Parati, Kalina Kawecka-Jaszcz, Andrew Marsh, Christos Biniaris, Manolis Stratakis, Riccardo Fontanelli, Davide Guerri, Ovidio Salvetti, Manolis Tsiknakis, Franco Chiarugi, Dragan Gamberger, Mariaconsuelo Valentini
University of Calabria, Department of Electronics, Informatics, Systems (DEIS), Italy;
University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases Division, Italy;
University of Milano “Bicocca”, Department of Clinical Medicine, Cardiology Unit, Italy;
Jagiellonian University Medical College, I Cardiac Dept., Poland;
Virtual Medical World Solutions Ltd, United Kingdom;
Hellenic Telecommunications and Telematics Applications Company S.A., Greece;
Synapsis S.r.l., Italy; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione, Italy;
Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, Greece;
Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Department of Electronics, Croatia;
Istituto Auxologico Italiano, S.Luca Hospital, Department of Cardiology, Italy

Abstract

HEARTFAID is a research and development project aimed at devising, developing and validating an innovative knowledge based platform of services, able to improve early diagnosis and to make more effective the medical-clinical management of heart diseases within elderly population. Chronic Heart Failure is one of the most remarkable health problems for prevalence and morbidity, especially in the developed western countries, with a strong impact in terms of social and economic effects. All these aspects are typically emphasized within the elderly population, with very frequent hospital admissions and a significant increase of medical costs. Recent studies and experiences have demonstrated that accurate heart failure management programs, based on a suitable integration of inpatient and outpatient clinical procedures, might prevent and reduce hospital admissions, improving clinical status and reducing costs. HEARTFAID aims at defining efficient and effective health care delivery organization and management models for the “optimal” management of the care in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The HEARTFAID innovative computerized system will improve the processes of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy provision, providing the following services:

• electronic health record for easy and ubiquitous access to heterogeneous patients data;
• integrated services for healthcare professionals, including patient telemonitoring, signal and image processing, alert and alarm system;
• clinical decision support in the heart failure domain, based on pattern recognition in historical data, knowledge discovery analysis and inferences on patients’ clinical data.

The formalization of the pre-existing clinical knowledge and the discovery of new elicited knowledge represent the core of the HEARTFAID platform.

Standardized Semantic Markup for Reference Terminologies, Thesauri and Coding Systems: Benefits for distributed E-Health Applications

Simon Hoelzer MD(1,2), Ralf K. Schweiger PhD(1,2), Raymond Liu(3), Dirk Rudolf(1), Joerg Rieger(1), Joachim Dudeck MD(1,2)
(1)Institute of Medical Informatics, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany
(2)HL7 User Group, Germany
(3)University of California, Department of Medicine, San Francisco, USA

Abstract:

With the introduction of the ICD-10 as the standard for diagnosis, the development of an electronic representation of its complete content, inherent semantics and coding rules is necessary. Our concept refers to current efforts of the CEN/TC 251 to establish a European standard for hierarchical classification systems in healthcare. We have developed an electronic representation of the ICD-10 with the extensible Markup Language (XML) that facilitates the integration in current information systems or coding software taking into account different languages and versions. In this context, XML offers a complete framework of related technologies and standard tools for processing that helps to develop interoperable applications.

Diagnostics and Virtual Training in Vascular Diseases

Workhop Organizers:
J.H.C. Reiber, Ph.D., Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
A.G. Hoekstra, Ph.D., Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Tagged: diagnose, imaging and virtual ; posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2004 at 10:16 pm
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