Project Objectives
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Major Item
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Status of completion
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To upgrade the existing SHARED telemedicine network toward an operational network by introducing a Telemedicine Operation Centre (TOC) and by upgrading the stations in order to have them remotely controllable together with the introduction of the necessary tools to allow services information access, booking, automatic scheduling and communications set-up and confidentiality of data.
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Telemedicine Operation Center
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100%
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Implementation of a business plan and service provider strategy for telemedicine services. | Incorporation of TelBios S.p.A. a telemedicine service provider operational since September 2001. |
100%
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To perform pilot operations in order to qualitatively and quantitatively prove the validity of telemedicine via satellite and to propose a methodology to use the telemedicine network, and to evaluate the quality of service. |
Extension of the network; inclusion of new sites
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100%
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The principal issues which the project addressed were:
The main benefits expected were:
EuroMedNet takes advantage of the interoperability between the satellite network and terrestrial networks. The satellite network, developed within the DESNET project, has a defined interface towards the telemedicine services, which are carried out by the Telemedicine Operation Centre.
The Tele-medicine Operational Centre (TOC) is the EuroMedNet network entity that co-ordinates all tele-medicine services provided through the EuroMedNet integrated satellite and terrestrial system.
The EuroMedNet System integrates the DESNET satellite network with the terrestrial one. It enhances the capabilities of the SHARED Tele-medicine Network, also based upon the DESNET, aimed to serve only remote Tele-medicine Clients (TC) accessing the system through the DES Data Earth Terminals (TCsat platforms). The EuroMedNet users population includes remote TCsat, corporate TC (TClan) platforms accessing the system through the TOC LAN, remote TCs accessing the system resources through Internet or dedicated ISDN lines named TCint and TCisdn respectively. All communication links between TCs are permitted.
The overall system operation is managed by the Tele-medicine Operations Centre (TOC). The TOC performs centralised service session reservation and permits access to the Central Medical Database (CDB). When the DESNET communication links establishment is necessary, the TOC interfaces with the DESNET Control Centre (DCC) to provide satellite channel bandwidth reservation for the requested service. This procedure follows the DESNET operational rules.
The development of EuroMedNet then aimed to create:
The tables below show the sites currently part of EuroMedNet Network and the services exploited during the Pilot Operations.
Code |
Satellite Station |
Present status |
Site A | Policlinico Celio Roma | Operational |
Site B | Scientific Institute H San Raffaele, Milan | Not - Operational |
Site C | Clinical Center Univ. of Sarajevo, BiH | Operational |
Site D | Poliambultario IDI, Tirana | Operational |
Site E | TOC, Rome | Operational |
Site F | V. Babes Hospital, Bucharest | Operational |
Site H | Hosp. Pugliese-Ciaccio, Catanzaro | Operational |
Site I | Italian Field Hospital,Pec | Operational |
Site J | ISMETT Palermo | Operational |
Site M | Hosp.Habib Thameur - Tunisia | Operational |
Site N | Gemelli | Operational |
Site O | Transportable | Operational |
Site P | Mobile Ambulatory | Operational |
Site Q | European Vision (cruise ship) | Operational |
Code |
ISDN Station |
Present status |
TTS#3 | Hosp.Habib Thameur - Tunisia | Operational |
TTS#4 | Scientific Institute H San Raffaele, Milan | Operational |
TTS#5 (Migra) |
The EuroMedNet results achieved by TelBios as telemedicine service provider, represent the point of the iceberg and the first plateau of a long journey. The point of the iceberg because they are the positive end points of a lot of effort, of economical resources invested by TelBios and as income from client.