BETTEReHEALTH project initiated to support eHealth solutions, improved outcomes in low-income African nations

March 9, 2021 | by

The BETTEReHEALTH initiative has kicked off with partners in both Europe and Africa, with the objective of coordinating and supporting the deployment of what they term “sustainable eHealth solutions” in low and lower middle income countries (LLMICs) in Africa. The group of 11 project partners from Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Malawi, Tunisia, Ghana, and Ethiopia aim to create better health outcomes through better healthcare accessibility and higher quality, leveraging eHealth and healthcare technology.

The initiative will map and identify various human, technical, and public policy factors in eHealth implementation, and from there derive strategies and policies for successful eHealth leading to improved population health. Another objective is to develop new and existing strategic partnerships in Africa, plus European and African stakeholders in healthcare, research, education, business, and government. It is also creating open access registries on eHealth policies and solution information to identify best practices.

BETTEReHEALTH received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101017450, going to December 2022.

Organized around “Better eHealth is Better Health,” project coordinator partner spokesperson Morten Dalsmo, Executive Vice President at SINTEF and Head of SINTEF Digital, one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations, said: “BETTEReHEALTH is an important contribution to improve the quality of health services and increase access to health for underserved populations in Africa. This project is very much in line with SINTEF’s vision “technology for a better society” and our commitment to the sustainable development goals. SINTEF has valuable experience from projects in eHealth and digital health and in addition to coordinating BETTEReHEALTH, we aim to share these experiences with the consortium and the health authorities in African countries. Furthermore, SINTEF and our partners have an extensive network in Africa. BETTEReHEALTH aims for stakeholders in Africa and Europe to connect and make new partnerships with the overall purpose of better health outcomes.” 

The initiative is setting up four regional hubs in Tunisia, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Malawi, endorsed by each country’s Ministry of Health, an important factor in their effectiveness.  The four host countries will implement policies, roadmaps, and strategic plans first to serve as models for all other African countries in the project.  Release.  Hat tip to Frederic Lievens of Ets. Lievens-Lanckman, Belgium, and the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH).

COVID-19 and telehealth–promise or peril? And the perils of digital health in conflict countries and India.

January 14, 2021 | by

The Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (JISfTeH) has published its latest issue today (13 Jan). JISfTeH is one of the few journals which shine a bright spot on digital health in developing countries. This month concentrates on conflict countries and COVID in India: 

  • Scaling Up Digital Health In Conflict Countries discusses the lack of any form of digital health and coordination in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and, with some exception, Nigeria. It compounds the extreme lack of healthcare services–for instance, 23 percent of Afghanis have poor access to healthcare, resulting in a high mortality rate. It can change. Rwanda, once synonymous with war, has one of the best healthcare systems in Africa due to the use of digital health services. India is using digital health in combating the TB explosion of 300,000 cases in one year. The exception in Nigeria is the liftoff of 54Gene, a genomic studies company in the world’s most genetically-diverse continent, which has secured $4.5 million in seed funding.
  • Speaking of India, telehealth has been kickstarted there due to COVID-19. The Indian Government is prioritizing the use of telehealth in the population and both public and private institutions have rolled out initiatives. India’s challenges are how patients pay for it (70% of healthcare expenses out of pocket) and how it reaches the two-thirds of population in rural areas where there is inadequate telecom and broadband for services. The irony, of course, is that India is a huge exporter of software and telecom services to the world. COVID-19 As A Catalyst for Telehealth Growth In India: Some Insights.

The editorial by Richard E. Scott of Canada and Prof. Maurice Mars of South Africa, COVID-19 and eHealth: A Promise or Peril Paradox?, cautions on the floodgates opening for telehealth in COVID’s wake. Spontaneous telehealth, where “healthcare providers themselves saw the value of an eHealth solution and implemented it independently and without traditional steps or approval” is quite separate from evidence- and needs-based telehealth. There is a lot of pressure at the national level, by the WHO, and by vendors to ‘make hay while the sun shines’. “Enthusiasm must be tempered with thoughtful guidance” on multiple and quite variable factors.

Digital health versus eHealth: ‘here we go again’ with the confusion and the differences. Plus Women in eHealth (JISfTeH)

February 7, 2019 | by

Editor Donna (and Editor Steve before her) always likes a good dust-up about terminology. One of the former’s pet peeves is the imprecise usage of telemedicine (virtual visits) versus telehealth (remote patient monitoring of vital signs); she will concede that the differences have been so trampled on that telemedicine has nearly faded from use.

The Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (JISfTeH) makes a grand attempt to parse the differing definitions of digital health and eHealth in their opening editorial of this month’s (24 Jan) issue. eHealth has fallen so far from use that the few times one does see it is in associations such as ISfTeH and the New York eHealth Collaborative. Even the World Health Organization, which has always been a fair arbiter for the industry, defined eHealth back in the salad days of 2005 as “the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for health”–broad, but workable. After a witty aside in defining digital health as “an area of healthcare focused entirely on fingers and toes” (plus), and examining the overly broad definitions of Eric Topol and Paul Sonnier, the authors Richard E. Scott and Maurice Mars seem to settle on this: that while digital health is given a  much broader but nebulous definition (to the point of linguistic absurdity cited in Mesko et al.), and may incorporate related technologies like genomics (another poorly defined term) and ‘big data’, it would not work without that ICT. And that at least there’s a settled definition for eHealth, as stated above, for which this Editor assumes we should be happy. In the author’s closing, “Will we be sufficiently motivated to rise to such a challenge-globally agreed universal definitions? If not ……here we go again …..”

This month’s journal theme is also Women in eHealth, with articles on Brazilian eHealth distance education, digital technology in midwifery practice, and how online social networks can work for drug abuse treatment referral. There’s also a change in format, with article links opening to full PDFs of each article.

NYeC Digital Health Conference (NYC)–next week

November 29, 2016 | by

NYeC Digital Health Conference, 6-7 December 2016 | New World Stages, New York, NY
The New York eHealth Collaborative’s Digital Health Conference brings together 500 senior-level healthcare industry leaders to learn about new innovations and to foster dynamic conversation addressing how healthcare is being redefined through technology. It is well on track to fill completely, so if you’ve been delaying your booking, now is the time. And our readers enjoy a 10 percent discount.

Updated and expanded agenda here.

Keynote speakers:
• Robert Wachter, MD, Professor and Interim Chairman of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, author of “The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age” [TTA 16 Apr 15]. (To this Editor, this is a must-see keynote!)
• Steven Johnson, PBS Host and Bestselling Author, “How We Got To Now” and “Where Good Ideas Come From”

Some other speakers: Carol Raphael, the former CEO of Visiting Nurse Service of NY; Kristopher Smith of Northwell Health; James Mault of Qualcomm Life and Aron Gupta of Quartet Health. This year a who’s who of New York’s healthcare and health tech community will gather for two days of networking, lively intellectual exchange, and exploration to see what’s new, what’s cutting edge and what will shape the future of healthcare.

It’s worth taking the trip to NYC for this right before the holidays! For more information, click here for the website.

Telehealth & Telecare Aware Readers receive a 10% registration discount. Click on this link or the sidebar advert. Important–use code TTA when registering. For updates, @NYeHealth. TTA is a conference partner/media partner of the NYeC DHC.

The difficulty in differentiating telemedicine and telehealth

June 15, 2016 | by

Our Editors have always tried to cleanly define the differences between telemedicine, telehealth and telecare, even as they blur in industry use. (See our Definitions sidebar for the latter two.) But telemedicine, at least on this side of the Atlantic, has lost linguistic ground to telehealth, which has become the umbrella term that eHealth wanted to be only two or three years ago. Similarly, digital health, connected health and mHealth have lost ground to health tech, since most devices now connect and incorporate mobility. And there are sub-genres, such as wearables, fitness trackers and aging tech.

Poor telehealth grows ever fuzzier emanations and penumbra! Now bearing the burden of virtual visits between doctor and patient, doctor-to-doctor professional consults, video conferencing (synchronous and asynchronous), remote patient monitoring of vital signs and qualitative information (ditto), and distance health monitoring to treat patients, it also begins to embrace its data: outcome-based analytics, population health and care modeling. Eric Wicklund accumulates a pile of studies from initial-heavy organizations: WHO, HIMSS, HHS, Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), ATA, TRC Network. All of which shows, perhaps contrary to Mr Wicklund’s intentions, how confusing simple concepts have become. mHealth Intelligence

Two US events: Health Wildcatters Pitch Day (Texas), mHealth Deep Dive (California)

November 3, 2015 | by

Health Wildcatters Pitch Day: 12 November, Majestic Theatre, Dallas Texas

This Texas accelerator will be presenting its 2015 class of 10 early stage companies in 10 days. Doors open at 2:30pm and the presentations are 3-5 pm. All attendees are cordially invited to the Pitch Day After Party which is a short two-block walk from the theatre at the Health Wildcatters office, 211 N. Ervay Street, 2nd floor. The $10 ticket cost is primarily to defray Eventbrite (having worked with them before!) as it is well-sponsored indeed. More information and registration here. Hat tip to Fiona Schlachter.

Deep Dive: Health/mHealth/eHealth: 8 December, 2825 Lafayette Street, Building 34 (EBC entrance), Santa Clara, California

Shrinking smart devices, sensors, cloud services, connectivity, and an aging population have all created tremendous changes in healthcare and fitness. This half-day deep dive meeting will discuss wireless and mobility solutions, as well as the fixed and fiber side that enables remote radiology and VR tele-surgery through robotic arms. If you are interested in the marriage of startup tech with the health and fitness industries, join in this discussion and networking. It probably pays to be a member as the non-member fee is steep. There are also ‘spotlight tables’ that are discounted 50 percent for pre-revenue startups. Sponsored by the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley. Information and registration. Hat tip to Editor Charles and Mike Clark.

‘Internet Plus’ nurturing China’s nascent digital health market

May 21, 2015 | by

Back in April this Editor was surprised by the interest Chinese investment companies had in Scanadu–and vice versa. Two of the three, Tencent Holdings and Fosun International, led the $35 million Series B round. Scanadu in return reportedly is developing products primarily for the China market, such as a urine analyzer.

Somewhat surprising, but it should not be, is the extent that private money tacks to the winds of official Chinese government policy. Ecns.com, the online site of the state China News Service, reports that part of the government ‘Internet Plus’ initiative will be targeted to the health and social care needs of 212 million people over 60 in China–a surprising 15.5 percent of the population. The civil affairs vice-minister has publicly advocated the use of the Internet, cloud computing and big data to transform care for the aged. Oddly, this also includes the development of ‘e-commerce’ for seniors.The language is also interesting and very careful–“The country’s population also features a large number of elderly people who are disabled and who are faced with empty nests and poverty” and a similar to the West shortage of carers. (more…)

Women and eHealth on the international scale: JISfTeH explores

April 24, 2015 | by

JISfTeH–the Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth–published by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, has an intriguing issue this quarter that focuses on the international role of women and eHealth, not only as recipients but also as developers, designers and integrators of what they term Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Encouraging a greater role for women in what we more commonly call HIT is the subject of various UN, academic and rural efforts. The articles here are about   programs designed by, implemented and largely for women: the ‘Zero Mothers Die’ global initiative using mHealth to reduce infant and maternal mortality, using video games in structured exercise to prevent depression and anxiety among new mothers in the rural Philippines, telehealth in the monitoring of gestational diabetes (more…)

MALCOLM final results now online (UK/FR)

January 16, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/MALCOM-Middle-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]If you are interested in the outcomes of SEHTA and Pôle-Tes‘ MALCOLM project, they are now published on the SEHTA website. The Anglo-Franco project analyzed remote care via ICT (information and communications technology) delivery (eHealth) and needs in the coastal Channel area: Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent in England, and Lower Normandy in France. The press release has more details on results, methodology and the funding.

19th ISfTeH International Conference – 5th Carrefour de la Telesante

July 21, 2014 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/logo_catel-ISfTeH.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]16 – 17 October 2014. Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris

The annual fall “Telesante” meeting’s theme this year is “Towards an international eHealth?” Sessions will center on success stories of eHealth applications, connected tools and services, methodologies, eHealth and economic development, and legal/regulatory frameworks. Organized by CATEL, the French Network for eHealth providers, and the ISfTeH, the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. Website and registration

Also: July ISfTeH newsletter Hat tip to Malcolm Fisk, CoDirector of Age Research Centre, Coventry University

International eGovernment and eHealth Cooperation Forum 2014 (Austria)

July 17, 2014 | by

20 October 2014. Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Wiedner Hauptstraße 63, Vienna, Austria

The Cooperation Forum is targeted at European and international public administrators, service providers, companies and potential purchasers in the areas of eHealth and eGovernment. It covers several verticals outside of healthcare but in the eHealth area they are (directly) listed as eHealth and Telemedicine, as well as less directly Open Government Data (OGD)/Public sector information (PSI). The Forum is centered on learning about latest trends and technologies, as well as cross-border contacts and meetings with principals in the eGovernment and eHealth sector. Supported by Enterprise Europe Network, the European Commission, WKO and Digital Austria. Attractively, participation in the Cooperation Forum is free of charge but registration for the event is mandatory; for international guests it includes complimentary accommodation (two nights in a 3*/4* hotel in the city center of Vienna with breakfast). Program (PDF). Flyer (PDF). Information and registration. Hat tip to Eva Weidinger, Head of Technology Affairs at the Austrian Embassy (London)

Welsh Government to develop new eHealth and Care Strategy

April 28, 2014 | by

The Government of Wales has announced that it is to develop a new eHealth and care strategy in [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Welsh-Goverment.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]conjunction with health boards, NHS trusts and local authorities in Wales. The strategy will focus on using technology such as video conferencing, remote monitoring and better use of health records.

In a written statement issued last week while the Welsh Assembly is on its break, the minister for health and social services states that consultation will take place with health and social care professionals and users and the strategy will be in place by the end of the year.

“This will help us achieve our aim of ensuring there are more services, care and support available for patients in their homes or in their local communities” says the statement from Mark Drakeford.

“Technology has a key role to play. This could include the use of video conferencing to allow patients and health professionals to talk to each other; to aid diagnosis and decision making and remote monitoring for people with particular health conditions. Technology can also help improve access to services by bringing them closer to people’s homes, for example by providing mobile services in rural areas.

“With an increasing ageing population it is essential we enable people to live independently for as long as possible. Without this, the health and well-being of individuals will be adversely affected.

“We will expect our information to be accessible to professionals where and when it is needed whether in health or in social care. We already have the Individual Health Record, with appropriate security and governance in place. Any potential wider access to people’s data would only be with their consent.”

The full statement is available on the Welsh Government website here.

A useful note on telehealth & telecare (UK)

March 20, 2014 | by

If like me you are frequently asked for a summary of what has happened recently in the world of telehealth & telecare and are forced either to sit down and cut & paste/write one or politely turn down the request, you’ll be pleased to know of the recent four-page summary produced by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). Written by Peter Border, it is a competent summary of recent developments in remote monitoring in the UK, including 3millionlives & ALIP, extending to mention of the regulation of medical apps.

Of course there are bits I’d have written differently. For example (more…)

The GET Project to grow EU startups/SMEs

February 21, 2014 | by

Associated with the international Health 2.0 organization, the GET Project provides four services to promote the growth of eHealth start-ups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in four different phases: opportunity identification, business model definition, fundraising and internationalization. Health 2.0 is managing the “GET Funded” service, which provides SMEs looking for Series B or follow up investment (between € 0.5-2M) with training, resources and networking opportunities with VCs and investors at the European level. (Perhaps a way around the Series B crunch?) More information. Contact Pascal Lardier, International Director at Pascal@health2con.com. Editor Donna notes that the focus here does not appear to be UK, though one of the five Advisory Board members listed is from Scotland (and interestingly, two are from the US): Jan Rutherford, Partner, Scottish Equity Partners (SEP); Sandra Bates, Founder and CEO Innovation Partners; Dave Whitlinger, Executive Director, New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC); Ron Michael Liebkind, Founder and CMO, Laastari Retail Clinics; Rajendre Khargi, Chair, OneWorld International Foundation.

Telefónica buys strategic stake in Saluspot

February 21, 2014 | by

Telefónica Digital today announced a strategic agreement with and a financial stake in information/medical community website Saluspot to extend the latter’s content and network in Spain and Latin America. Saluspot is an interesting cross between health information (WebMD) and physician locators (in the US, ZocDoc and Vitals) in that it provides free, anonymous contact with registered (on their site) physicians via the website to answer consumer questions in areas where healthcare access is limited; through this matching it also provides visibility for doctors as well as a professional exchange and purchasing collective. The benefit for Saluspot is to increase their coverage beyond Spain and Chile, and for Telefónica to add health tech services in major markets such as Brazil, where they acquired chronic care management company Axismed last year. Telefónica’s eHealth reach, according to the release, is over two million eHealth service customers in Latin America and its media networks include Eleven Paths, giffgaff, Media Networks Latin America and Terra.