Preliminary results from the deployment of integrated teleconsultation services in rural Crete

Author

Chronaki, CE ; Lees, PJ ; Antonakis, N. ; Chiarugi, F. ; Vrouchos, G. ; Nikolaidis, G. ; Tsiknakis, M. ; Orphanoudakis, SC

Author_Institution

Inst. of Comput. Sci., CMI-HTA, Heraklion, Greece

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

671

Lastpage

674

Abstract

Teleconsultation services for cardiology patients have been installed and have been in routine use since December 2000, connecting a primary health centre in rural Crete to a regional hospital. Since efficiency and effectiveness are key factors in the acceptance of the service, integration of the services with the primary health record, support of clinical protocols and guidelines, and continuous evaluation of the services are primary foci of the overall effort. This paper discusses our evaluation approach and presents preliminary results from the utilization of the service between December 2000 and June 2001. The presented results are encouraging, suggesting that the wide deployment of the service will benefit not only the patients but also the GPs, the cardiologists and the health care system

Keywords

cardiology; health care; telemedicine; HYGEIAnet; cardiologists; cardiology patients; clinical guidelines; clinical protocols; continuous evaluation; effectiveness; efficiency; general practitioners; health care system; integrated teleconsultation services; primary health centre; primary health record; regional hospital; rural Crete; service acceptance; service deployment; Cardiology; Computer science; Context-aware services; Electrocardiography; Guidelines; Hospitals; Joining processes; Medical services; Protocols; Telemedicine;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computers in Cardiology 2001

Conference_Location

Rotterdam

ISSN

0276-6547

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7266-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CIC.2001.977745

Filename

977745