The symposium was organised by ESA at ESRIN, its facility just outside Rome. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds including central and local government, television, the telecom industry, health services and hospitals, the military, academia and the space sector; all had one thing in common - an interest in encouraging the use of telemedicine.
The benefits of expanding the use of telemedicine are threefold: it can improve the quality of healthcare services; permit the best use of often limited hospital resources such as beds, doctors, nurses and expensive medical equipment; and also help to resolve the problem of unequal access to good health care.
Participants at the symposium split into working groups to discuss different aspects of telemedicine:
- telemedicine and the elderly
- telemedicine for disaster relief and emergencies
- telemedicine for hospitals in remote areas
- teleconsulting, 2nd opinion and regulatory aspects
- telemedicine, medical education and clinical research
- telemedicine technology development in satellite communications
They symposium was co-chaired by ESA's Director of Applications, Claudio Mastracci and Prof. Louis Lareng, Director of the European Institute of Telemedicine in Toulouse. Prof. Lareng stimulated discussion by visiting each working group and asking them to consider whether satellites were used enough in telemedicine and if not, why not. The answer to the first question was a universal 'no'; answers to the second question were more diverse. Among the reasons given for not using satellites, several working groups indicated the lack of awareness as to the benefits.
Among the benefits of satellite communications are the instant access they offer to broadband, particularly in remote areas where telecommunications are poor or non-existent, and in disasters where speed is vital. Satellites also provide a powerful and relatively inexpensive tool, particularly for video links between multiple users. It was pointed out that the costs are constantly decreasing and that satellites are a tried and tested extremely reliable means of telecommunication.
In discussing telemedicine in general, participants agreed that although a promising start had been made in many areas, its expansion was hindered by a lack of universal standards; the availability, quality and speed of information transfer; legal and ethical concerns; security of data; funding; and a general lack of support, at European and national level, to encourage doctors and hospitals to set up telemedicine services.
ESA's role
Participants believed that ESA could encourage the improvement and use of telemedicine services by acting as an 'honest broker'. That is, by bringing all those concerned together, pushing for standardisation and interoperability at European level, monitoring developments, and encouraging further research and development.
There was general agreement that the symposium had been a positive exercise and asked ESA to create a 'permanent' working group on telemedicine with more representatives mainly of industry and the health sector. In his summing up, Claudio Mastracci said that ESA's future objectives were, "to listen, encourage debate and understanding, and define future actions. It was the duty of governments to ensure good health services for all their citizens and ESA, together with the EU, will push for that".
Professor Louis Lareng
Prof. Lareng aptly summed up the purpose of the meeting in his closing remarks, when he reminded participants that: "the reason for encouraging telemedicine services is to relieve the suffering of people, wherever they may be".
