Commission opens consultation on telemedicine

The Commission has called for experts to share their views on telemedicine as part of policy proposals on innovative technologies for chronic disease management due next year.

In view of publishing a communication on telemedicine and innovative technologies for chronic disease management in September next year, the Commission launched, on 11 October, a public consultation to gather expertise from different member states on the issue.

According to the Commission, telemedicine, which refers to the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for the delivery of health care, “appears to be a very promising tool to support the remote monitoring and management of chronically ill patients.”

The Commission is thus inviting experts to share their experience and give concrete examples of their main achievements in the field. Experts are encouraged to detail their reasons – geographical, skills shortages or the need for complementary expertise – for the development of telemedicine solutions as well as the perceived impact of their activities. 

Another aim of the consultation is to consider eventual obstacles linked to patient reimbursement, acceptance from the medical community and legal problems encountered in developing these technologies. Furthermore, experts are asked to give their views on how to ensure that telemedicine solutions can be fully deployed and integrated into national and European healthcare systems. 

The consultation is open until 26 October and the responses will help structure the TeleHealth 2007 conference, due to take place on 11 December.

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