Information Technology Solutions for Healthcare

Many of the changes occurring within medicine are being catalyzed by the proliferation of professional and social activity with the internet and mobile technology. Understanding of the way in which healthcare is being transformed by IT is key in the improvement of medical standards and reduction of cost. This book presents the current and future trends in the transformation of healthcare services in the Information Society Era.The synergy between computer technology and medical services has opened fascinating new possibilities for benefit in areas such as continuing care, chronic disease treatment and old people home monitoring, bringing with it the promise of essential changes in existing models of care delivery and system performance. This book addresses the priorities within international informatics and presents a complete and thorough survey of the most promising e-health technologies. This is illustrated with the inclusion of case reports indentifying real applications of the techniques, with the focus on providing an integrated overview of e-health, and the medical, sociological and technical aspects.The authors' primary objective has been to provide an in-depth study of internet-enhanced healthcare services, while mobile technology is also reviewed in the context of modern wireless technologies. The authors have provided a unique analysis of the evolution of healthcare services. The book is illustrated by numerous examples and comes together to provide a valuable set of tele-care solutions available to modern informatics practice.

The idea of publishing the book on the use of information technology for improvement of healthcare delivery systems from the PRO-ACCESS initiative (ImPROving ACCESS of Associated States to Advanced Concepts in Medical Telematics, IST-2001-38626) focused on the better access of new associated countries (now countries accessing European Union) to modern e-health technologies developed in leading European centers.The book brings a comprehensive view of all those areas in which application of computer and telecommunication technologies have or will have in near future extensive impact on the quality and availability of health care services. It is addressed to broad audience of readers representing health professionals community, related professional environment, managers and policy-makers focused on health maintence problems.The PRO-ACCESS initiative focuses on creating a platform for promotion, dissemination and transfer of advanced health telematics concepts and experiences from development and deployment of telemedicine solutions to NAS. To achieve this, a Centre of Competence will be established to broaden the formula of the Krakow Telemedicine CoE existing in Poland, in order to coordinate publishing activities, events, trainings and intake of solutions from cooperating partners within EU and NAS. The main impact of the Centre will be a substantially improved awareness of state-of- the-art medical telematics technologies in NAS. The Krakow Telemedicine CoE will be thereby strengthened by increasing its networking with leading RTD centres in EU and NAS, and by training of research and professional staff of the Centre and target user groups of e-health solutions developed in the CoE.