Med-e Tel: A Unique Education Tool for Success
M. Jordanova1,2, F. Lievens3,4
1
Space Research & Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
2
3
Education Program Coordinator, Med-e-Tel, mjordan@bas.bg
Board Member, Secretary and Treasurer of International Society for Telemedicine &
eHealth (ISfTeH), Switzerland
4
Director, Med-e-Tel, Belgium, lievens@skynet.be
The paper presents in brief the unique education aspect of Med-e-Tel, The International
Educational and Networking Forum for eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT (Fig. 1)
(www.medetel.eu).
The name Med-e-Tel summarizes what the event is about, i.e.:
•
The "Med" in Med-e-Tel stands for
healthcare services (institutional and home based
care, prevention and education) and for medical
products and equipment (medical imaging
equipment, monitoring devices, electronic health
records, etc.).
•
The "e" stands for the electronic and IT
industry and services (hard- & software, internet, email, etc.), while
•
The "Tel" stands for telecommunications
(whether
it
is
POTS, mobile, satellite,
videoconferencing, VoIP, or other).
History
Fig 1. Med-e-Tel home page
The event has started out in 2002 under the
name "Telemedicine & Telecare International
Trade Fair" and gradually grew out to become
the most international Telemedicine and
eHealth networking event around the world.
Within 10 years the number of attending
countries has increased almost 2,5 times,
while the number of presentation grew 6
times (Fig. 2).
Med-e-Tel Objectives
Med-e-Tel is a highly specialized event that
brings suppliers of specific equipment and
service providers together with buyers,
healthcare professionals, decision makers and
policy makers from many countries around
the globe and provides them with hands-on
Fig. 2
experience and knowledge about currently
available products, technologies and applications. This is the forum where state-of-the-art
products, ideas, projects, etc. are presented and discussed.
Year after year Med-e-Tel is becoming a nesting place for
new co-operations and partnerships between scientific
groups and institutions, small, medium and large size
enterprises, from all over the world. It facilitates worldwide
eHealth implementation via networking, education,
business.
Education
In addition to the business-to-business aspect Med-e-Tel is
also focused on an extensive educational program. The
program is organized around plenary and parallel sessions,
workshops and satellite symposia, project meetings.
Combining over 250 oral and poster presentations the
program presents current applications and best practice
Fig. 3 Example of Med-e-Tel
examples in the field of Telemedicine/eHealth and provides
2012 UEMS/EACCME certificate
a glimpse of future trends in the field. Attendees are
learning from the experience built up by experts from
around the world; discuss their effects on the healthcare system as a whole and are update on
new developments allowing more effective and efficient use of technologies to improve
quality of health, medical and social care.
Specific aspects of Med-e-Tel educational program are the sessions dedicated to nurses and
students.
Med-e-Tel provides the right resources to help today's busy physicians meet their
professional needs providing them an opportunity to receive Continuous Medical Education
(CME) credits (Fig. 3).
Continuing medical education is a fundamental requirement for the maintenance of the
quality of medical practice. The participation of medical specialists in continuing medical
education programs should be encouraged (Charter on Quality Assurance in Medical
Specialist Practice, adopted by the Management Council of the Union of European Medical
Specialists,
March
1996,
http://www.uems.net/fileadmin/user_upload/uems_documents/UEMS_Charters_Declarations/
175.pdf).
The system for CME is aimed to assure the high level of theoretic and clinical competence
throughout the working life of medical specialists. Doctors are faced with an exploding
amount of literature and new technologies as well as a concern about escalating medical costs
with a great emphasis on efficacy. CME provides educational activities, which allow one to
maintain, develop and increase medical knowledge and skill and to improve the professional
performance to ensure better and safer treatment for the patient. Since 2007 Med-e-Tel is
accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
(EACCME) to provide CME activity for medical specialists. Depending on its annual
program Med-e-Tel is designated to provide up to 18 European CME credits (ECMEC).
EACCME credits are also recognized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Canada and by the American Medical Association towards the Physician's Recognition
Award.
Another educational activity that is worth mentioning is the Global eHealth Strategies
Symposium. It aims to provide an intercultural and multidisciplinary framework in order to
promote policy dialogue on how eHealth can address health issues and challenges in
developing countries, as well as analyze transferability of evidence, identify barriers and
determine factors for a useful deployment of eHealth. The European Commission (DG
Information Society and Media) is a partner of the Global eHealth Strategies symposium.
Med-e-Tel is publishing Electronic proceedings since 2006 and the series “Global
Telemedicine/eHealth Updates: Knowledge Resources” since 2008. Both publications present
a collective experience of experts from different continents all over the world. Papers reveal
various national and cultural points of view on how to develop and implement
Telemedicine/eHealth solutions for the treatment of patients and wellbeing of citizens.
Publications from 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 can be downloaded from
http://www.medetel.eu/index.php?rub=proceedings&page=info for free. Hard copies can also
still be purchased. Proceedings from 2010 till 2012 are currently only available for purchase
from the website.
One of the most important educational initiatives of Med-e-Tel is the creation of the
Knowledge
Resource
section
(http://www.medetel.eu/index.php?rub=knowledge_resources&page=info). This is a database,
available for free, that provides copies of all abstracts and presentations that have been made
at Med-e-Tel throughout the past years (2002-2012). It is a comprehensive listing providing
an overview of Telemedicine and eHealth research, technology, practical experiences and
information from around the world, which is updated year after year with new titles and links.
The information is sorted per year, per topic and per country, and also includes a list of
Evidence Based Telemedicine/Telehealth experiences. The “Year” refers to the year the
presentation was made at Med-e-Tel. The “Topic” section lists the presentations per general
topic (such as telecardiology, homecare, developing countries, etc.), while “Country” refers to
the country of the authors. Although this classification per country is not as relevant for all
presentations (as some cover regional or global issues, or non-country specific data or
experiences), it is highly relevant for some of them and allows to search for country specific
Telemedicine and eHealth programs or data.
The “Evidence Based Telemedicine/Telehealth” section provides an overview of
presentations that offer evidence of Telemedicine/Telehealth outcomes, i.e. providing an
insight into clinical and/or economic effectiveness and efficiency of Telemedicine/Telehealth
applications.
If summarize– with more than 3500 abstracts, presentations and papers, Med-e-Tel is
offering an extraordinary virtual free library, a fantastic educational tool for all engaged in the
field of Telemedicine/eHealth.
In sum: Med-e-Tel is extremely valuable and unique educational tool. It demonstrates and
leads the way from needs to practical applications, highlights quantitative numbers and
results, serves networking and provides education for science, practitioners and citizens. Mede-Tel is the perfect organization to follow-up on what is globally going on and what the new
trends in the area of eHealth are.