Global Health Monitoring Platform Service

Success and Failure in the Sponsor-Vendor Partnership

Innovative Service Solution for Global Telemedicine Services

Healthcare is about to face major challenges in the near future. Healthcare Costs are rapidly increasing worldwide due to aging population and widespread chronic diseases. Due to the information-intensive nature of healthcare, intelligent ICT solutions can yield significant benefits by introducing new radical treatment systems; more efficient internal processes and new services such as remotely supported care as well as personalised well-being and home care services.

Traditional healthcare and well-being services are usually tied to certain physical locations, such as hospitals or medical centres. New remote monitoring and telemedicine services will drastically reshape the medical care chain. Emtele, Comptel, VTT and A*Star have collaborated to offer an innovative and open eHealth service concept that will enable service providers to take the next step and maximize the benefits of such services. The first service piloting will be done with Tampere University Hospital Heart Centre with acute ECG case. Plans are under way to carry out a similar service piloting in Singapore in the near future, thereby reinforcing the global nature of the offered eHealth service concept.

The service concept draws power from easy integration of existing monitoring and telemedicine devices; applications and systems to extend the current care processes outside the hospitals and form a true global service. The basis of the system is an open Global Health Monitoring Platform (GHMP). The platform offers an efficient, open, scalable and secure service environment for remote diagnostics and telemedicine services utilization.

Telemedicine to Bring Efficiency to Medical Service Provider

The eHealth-service concept utilizes ICT-solutions, mobile and machine- to machine technologies to provide a new type of distributed global treatment infrastructure. Patient can be in the medical service providers care chain without being in a hospital. Remote monitoring solutions can push the point of care very close to where the patients are. In an acute emergency it can enable faster intervention and more reliable consultation support which has the potential to save lives. In chronic cases patients can continue their normal life and be monitored and guided by a physician wherever they might be located.. The best expertise can be delivered remotely to every corner on the globe.

A History of Multiple Solutions But Few True Services

A multitude of remote care solutions have been around for quite some time. Still, a true and adaptable service that could openly utilize, integrate and manage different vendor’s telemedicine devices and applications did not exist in the area, until today. Because of proprietary systems, devices and un-standardized diagnostic data the fragmented offering has stood in the way of remote and telemedicine services integration into hospitals, medical and well-being service providers care chain.

The GHMP is a service and business innovation of Emtele, Comptel and VTT that will draw power from easy integration of existing devices, applications and systems. Enabling the use of multiple devices and intelligently relaying the data to relevant parties and back-end systems brings new quality, security, automation and efficiency levels to medical service providers’ processes. All the information transfer is managed end-to-end. The internet-based data transfer makes global access and information use possible.

The GHMP offers many functions that are critical to make sure that the service can be part of a medical service providers offering. It enables different telemedicine solutions and equipment to be used and managed in a common environment to form true services for the right needs. A total telemedicine service is included to be an integral part of the medical service providers care chain by enabling health care information delivery between health care customers, measurement devices and service providers' back-end systems, such as the EMR’s (Electronic Medical Record).

The platform also automates numerous information gathering and reporting functions so that information exchange can be highly independent. Supporting processes are the basis of a flexible service solution. The GHMP holds versatile transaction management and reporting functions that enable flexibility of services by the support of a multitude of service models.

Benefits of the GHMP Service

GHMP will enable medical service providers to draw benefits of modern technology and utilize mobility and new services more efficiently. This service concept has brought together the best experts and partners so that telemedicine solutions and their effective utilization would be possible.

GHMP-service focuses on mastering information delivery, networking, security and devices as well as service applications management. By focusing on these critical areas it guarantees healthcare and well-being service providers a mastering role in the total value chain. They can effectively enhance their current services by automating information delivery and processes. Also new services and telemedicine devices can be flexibly added to the concept and current care processes as tested equipment and applications are available.

The overall effects:
For the medical service provider:

• An efficient, open, scalable and secure service environment for remote diagnostics and telemedicine services utilization
• Streamline care processes, reach better efficiency and improved care quality
• Increase business volume through larger geographical reach and lowered need for physical presence.
• In elderly care and chronic diseases people can be mainly treated at home, which increases the hospital infrastructure capacity.
• Detection of symptoms and/or trends that may be apparent over a period of time but may not show up during one-off check ups

For the medical technology suppliers:

• A trustworthy ICT service partner and solution that provides constantly developing connectivity and communication services.
• The openness and global reach of the solution give opportunity to sales increase.

For the patient:

• Security and quality
• Personalized telemedicine solutions with–out ties to a place and time
• Faster consultation in case of and acute emergency
• Detection of symptoms and/or trends that may be apparent over a period of time but may not show up during one-off check ups
• Faster consultation in case of and acute emergency
• Continuous care services at home and on the move.
• Little disruption to usual living routines.

Example: Acute ECG analysis

The first pilot case brings together all the key players in the telemedicine value chain. Emtele, Comptel, VTT, Tampere University Hospital Heart Center, Regional Rescue Center and device manufacturers develop a global telemedicine service for acute ECG analysis and care consultation process.

The first test-bed for the service will be ECG monitoring and therapeutic decisions making in critical situations at the Tampere University Heart Center’s uptake area. ECG diagnostics from Regional Rescue Centers mobile units and from other remote sites such as smaller hospitals and portable devices are connected to Heart Clinics care chain. Heart Clinics experts can give therapeutic consultation remotely in an acute emergency. This enables the right treatment to be started as early as possible.

Cooperation writers of the article : Kalle Hammar, Manager, Emtele Ltd – ICT Service Provider - www.emtele.com
Kari Niemelä, Director of Tampere University Hospital Heart Center - http://www.pshp.fi/
Jaakko Lähteenmäki, Senior Research Scientist, VTT – www.vtt.fi
WONG Woon Kwong, Deputy Director, Information Communication Sciences Section, A*STAR – www.a-star.edu.sg