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European Space Agency

Press Release

Satellite's Role in Telemedecine

29 May 2003
 
Telemedicine can potentially play an important role in improving
health services. Ways in which satellites can help to improve these
services was the subject of a symposium that took place in Italy last
weekend. 
 
The symposium was organised by ESA at ESRIN, the European Space
Research Institute just outside Rome. Participants came from a
variety of backgrounds including central and local government, health
services and hospitals, the military, academia and the space sector;
all participants had one thing in common - an interest in encouraging
the use of telemedicine.

The benefits of expanding the use of telemedicine are threefold: it
can improve the quality of healthcare services; permit the best use
of often limited hospital resources such as beds, doctors, nurses and
expensive medical equipment; and also help to resolve the problem of
unequal access to good health care.

Several working groups were organised to cover various aspects of
telemedicine, including: 

    * telemedicine and the elderly 
    * telemedicine for disaster relief and emergencies 
    * telemedicine for hospitals in remote areas 
    * teleconsulting, 2nd opinion and regulatory aspects 
    * telemedicine, medical education and clinical research 
    * telemedicine technology development in satellite communications 

The symposium was co-chaired by ESA's Director of Applications,
Claudio Mastracci and Prof. Louis Lareng, Director of the European
Institute of Telemedicine in Toulouse. Prof. Lareng helped to
stimulate discussion by visiting each working group and asking them
to consider whether satellites were used enough in telemedicine and
if not, why not. The answer to the first question was a universal
'no'; answers to the second question were more diverse. Among the
reasons given for not using satellites, several working groups
mentioned lack of awareness as to the benefits.

The advantages that satellite communications can bring to
telemedicine include instant access to broadband services,
particularly in remote areas where telecommunications are poor or non
existent, and swift response in disaster situations where speed is
vital. Satellites also provide a powerful and relatively inexpensive
tool, particularly for video links between multiple users. Plus,
costs are constantly decreasing and satellites are a tried, tested
and extremely reliable means of telecommunication.

In discussing telemedicine in general, participants agreed that
although a promising start had been made in many areas, its expansion
was hindered by a lack of universal standards; the availability,
quality and speed of information transfer; legal and ethical
concerns; security of data; funding; and a general lack of support,
at European and national level, to encourage doctors and hospitals to
set up telemedicine services.
 

ESA's role
 
Participants believed that ESA could encourage the improvement and
use of telemedicine services by acting as an 'honest broker'. That
is, by bringing all those concerned together, pushing for
standardisation and interoperability at European level, monitoring
developments, and encouraging further research and development. 

There was general agreement that the symposium had been a positive
exercise and ESA was asked to create a 'permanent' user-oriented
working group on telemedicine with representatives mainly from the
health sector. In his summing up, Claudio Mastracci said that ESA's
future objectives were, "to listen, encourage debate and
understanding, and define future actions. It was the duty of
governments to ensure good health services for all their citizens and
ESA, together with the EU, will push for that". 

Prof. Lareng aptly summed up the purpose of the meeting in his
closing remarks, when he reminded participants that: "the reason for
encouraging telemedicine services is to relieve the suffering of
people, wherever they may be". 

In the near future ESA will set up, via satellite, a user-driven
telemedicine working group to define the actions needed to build up a
European, telemedicine via satellite programme.

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