Collaborating for Digital Health and Care in Europe

Published by The Medical Futurist, in this recently published e-book you will find reliable information about the latest digital health innovations, technologies, and trends proving successful to combat COVID-19. Read More (download PDF) >

UNITED STATES
Virtual care: New models of caring for our patients and workforce
By Lee H. Schwamm et al  | The Lancet - 6 May 2020

This API is at the core of the bio-surveillance system, DE4Bio developed by Engineering S.p.A, an EHTEL member. It has been developed by FIWARE and is supported by the European Commission. The system, which is now being actively used by Italian authorities, provides the technical capabilities needed to turn widely collected data into real-time patient tracking, contagion maps, and predictive analyses.The API is one of the 10 building blocks made available by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to support the emergence of a European data-driven ecosystem that connects networks together. Read More >

EU Member States, supported by the Commission, have developed an EU toolbox for the use of mobile applications for contact tracing and warning in response to the coronavirus pandemic.  This is part of a common coordinated approach to support the gradual lifting of confinement measures. 
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A coalition of European stakeholders launched a new contact-tracing proximity technology under the project Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT). It analyses bluetooth handshakes that may have been registered between two smartphone users when they come into close proximity with one another. Read More >

A multidisciplinary group of experts is working to evaluate and propose data-driven technological solutions for the management of the health, economic and social emergency which is linked to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 
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The “time has come” for the technology sector now that, in the COVID-19 crisis, it is seeing the mass adoption of technology and digital behaviours. In return for this unexpected and rapid move online, the digital sector needs to step up – since it is uniquely placed to leverage that same technology for social benefit and good when we need it most. Read More >

A joint venture of three Flemish technology companies has developed an application to curb the spread of the new coronavirus "faster and more efficiently." Entitled "Flattening The Curve", and available free from next week, the application will warn users of places where there are high levels of infection and encourage them to see a doctor if and when any symptoms of COVID-19 disease appear. Read More > (In French)

How will health care systems look like once COVID-19 is over? The last paragraph of this article is about "Finally adopting telemedicine". It highlights the need to improve health system governance so as to adopt telemedicine as a more usual way of delivering care. Read More > (In French)

Mental health is a really important field of therapy. COVID-19 is now affecting the entire globe – it has come out ‘of the blue’. The Netherlands, Sweden, and other countries are all witnessing a situation in which the COVID-19 outbreak is hastening managers, ICT staff, and clinicians to overcome overnight barriers to adoption that previous took them up to 17 years. Theirs is a pragmatic standpoint seldom seen before. The virus seems a greater catalyst for the implementation of online therapy and e-health tools in routine practice, and especially that of mental health, than two decades of many brilliant, but failed, attempts in this domain. Read More > (pdf)

Commenting on the dramatic increase in teleconsultations, Professor Jürgen Debatin, Head of the Health Innovation Hub of the German Federal Ministry of Health, states: "[…] it is above all digital technologies that keep us together as a society in this situation. This also applies to medicine." Patients can communicate via tele-platforms from home with a doctor. Even those who are not allowed to leave home need not feel left alone. Telemedicine reduces the risk of infection for the individual patient, for the practice staff and of course for everyone else. Read More > (In German)

Most operators offer their platforms currently free of charge. It is estimated that more than 20,000 medical doctors and psychotherapists (10% of office-based practitioners) now offer appointments through video consultation. Online appointments are reimbursed, just like face2face meetings, plus a technology surcharge - provided that one of the 20 platforms certified by the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) is used. Read More > (In German)

INAMI/RIZIV, the Belgian National Institute of Health Insurance and Disability, has updated its list of reimbursable services (to include medical teleconsultations with retroactive effect from 14 March 2020). The teleconsultation fee for doctors is set at 20 euros, to be entirely covered by INAMI/RIZIV.
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Telemedicine is booming in France by a jump of 40% in a few weeks. So much so that the government has taken up the subject. Health Minister Olivier Véran has announced a decree easing the conditions for the practice of telemedicine. Read More > (In French)

Hospitals are urged to expand their use of telemedicine, both within their facilities for infection control and to reach patients at home through video -visits and symptom-checker chatbots. Health insurers are also encouraging expanded telemedicine use and giving providers and patients incentives to use this delivery model. Read More >

Physicians from some of Israel’s largest hospitals have volunteered for the Innovation social project geared to helping isolated patients all over the world. Read More >

Telemedicine is playing a key role. Robotic devices and camera technology from companies such as InTouch Health and Zoom Video Communications are being used with coronavirus patients and in broader communication during the crisis. Read More >

Datos's remote patient monitoring platform, Tyto Care's connected devices, and a robot from InTouch Health will help the hospital treat and monitor patients in quarantine and at home. Read More >