Med@Tel, the International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum

Med-e-Tel is an event of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), THE international federation of national associations who represent their country's Telemedicine and eHealth stakeholders.

The ISfTeH exists to facilitate the international dissemination of knowledge and experience in Telemedicine and eHealth, to provide access to recognized experts in the field worldwide, and to offer unprecedented networking opportunities. Med-e-Tel is one of the instruments that help the ISfTeH to realize this mission.

Med-e-Tel 2015 will be held in conjunction with the IHE-Europe Connectathon 2015, IHE's annual connectivity test marathon where health IT companies test the interoperability of their products against multiple vendors' systems. They perform these tests using real world clinical scenarios following IHE Integration Profile specifications across a variety of domains (radiology, cardiology, pharmacy, pathology, patient care devices, patient care coordination, laboratory, ...).

eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT are a tool at the service of medical and nurse practitioners, patients, citizens, healthcare institutions and governments. It involves many different stakeholders who need to be brought face-to-face to share aspirations, learn from research and experiences, show the possibilities, understand the market, discover new applications. Med-e-Tel is the meeting place with a proven potential for Education, Networking and Business among a global audience with diverse professional backgrounds.

Experimental Ebola treatments still at early stage of development

At this point in time there is not enough evidence for any of the experimental therapies for Ebola Virus Disease to draw conclusions on their safety or efficacy when used in Ebola patients. This is the finding of an interim report published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that is continuing to review all Ebola treatments currently under development.

Any new information that becomes available will be added to the review to provide the best possible overview of data on medicinal treatments for Ebola.

“Treatments for patients infected with the Ebola virus are still in early stages of development,” notes Marco Cavaleri, Head of Anti-infectives and Vaccines at EMA. “We encourage developersto generate more information on the use of these medicines in the treatment of Ebola patients. We will review any new information as soon as it becomes available to support the response to this ongoing public health crisis.”

National laws on Electronic Health Records and cross-border eHealth services in EU Member States

Electronic Health Records are part of an interoperable infrastructure that allows different healthcare providers to access and update health data in order to ensure the continuity of care of the patient.

Yet there are, according to the authors of the study, major disparities between countries on the deployment of EHRs. The same can be said about the approach taken to regulate EHRs - some countries have set specific rules for EHRs, others rely on general health records and data protection legislation.

Content of EHRs 

While some countries have set detailed requirements as to the content of EHRs, others do not specify what this content should be. The level of details of the legislation on EHR content varies greatly from a simple reference to health data in general to exhaustive and detailed list of categories or data item. 

Executive Summary of the 2014 European Conference on Rare Diseases

A record 768 attendees from 43 countries took part and over 200 posters were presented at this year'sEuropean Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Products (ECRD), the biggest yet since the first took place in 2001.

The 7th ECRD, co-organised by EURORDIS and DIA(the Drug Information Association), took place in May of this year in Berlin. Download the newly available ECRD Executive Summary to view the full conference programme, a breakdown of attendees, a list of posters and summaries of the themes and sessions.

You can also view a special ECRD supplement of speaker and poster presentations featured in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.

The event, which takes place every two years, is a unique platform across all rare diseases and European countries, bringing together patient representatives, academics, healthcare professionals, industry, payers, regulators and policymakers.

5th International Conference on Digital Health

ACM DL 2015 will in particular focus on public health computer science covering a wide spectrum of subjects including communities of practice and social networks, analytics and engagement with tracking and monitoring wearable devices, big data, public health surveillance, persuasive technologies, epidemic intelligence, participatory surveillance, serious games for public health interventions and automated early identification of health threats and response.

5th DIGITAL HEALTH: 5th International Conference on Digital Health
http://www.acm-digitalhealth.org/ 

18th - 20th May 2015, Florence, Italy held in conjunction with WWW 2015

Antilope Handover Workshop/Conference

The Antilope network will come to an end in January 2015.

To cap two years of hard work, the project will convene key stakeholders, decision makers and eHealth experts for its final event, a “handover workshop”, on 29 January 2015 in Ghent, Belgium.  We invite interested parties to join us to hear about Antilope’s key outcomes; learn how countries, projects and leading experts adapt Antilope’s approach to standards and interoperability; and get to know various EU projects and initiatives that will carry Antilope’s work forward (hence the “handover”).

The Antilope handover workshop will review project results and deliverables, assess the impact of Antilope recommendations from at least four Member States, and discuss in a roundtable with new EU-funded initiatives how the Antilope results will be used, refined, and further disseminated to advance eHealth interoperability. To ensure that this handover will benefit from input from many stakeholders, Antilope invites:

• Antilope consortium members
• European initiatives and projects promoting eHealth interoperability
• eHealth experts, policymakers, procurers, academics, industry
• and other interested parties

Participants will get the opportunity to interact face to face with EU officials, policymakers and eHealth experts, and to learn first-hand about the European eHealth interoperability agenda.

The event takes place on Thursday, 29 January 2015, 09.00-17.00, in the Ghent University Hospital Auditorium in Ghent, Belgium.