Health Information Services

  • Status
    Ongoing
  • Status date
    2008-06-19
Objectives






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Health Information Services, brand name Telesana,  is a television- and IP-based information platform addressing patients in waiting rooms and doctors in surgeries.


Some basic considerations for implementation of this new service offer are:



  • Health Care is one of the key topics of the global community

  • An aging society has an increasing need for information in the sectors of medicine, prevention, health-system

  • Doctors are facing a large and rapidly changing offer of scientific information and education

  • Certification of Qualification will build further need for dedicated training and information platforms

  • Market participants as Pharmaceutical Industry, Health Insurance Companies, Medical Associations and Public Services are looking for more efficient ways of communication B2B and B2C

Telesana Live
Patients will receive a live-program covering selected health issues embedded in news-orientated infotainment:



  • Health-related Information

  • News

  • Lifestyle, Culture, Finance

  • Sports, Travel, Cars, Weather

  • Promotion/Infomercials/Advertising
Telesana Professional
Doctors get professional information transmitted for use on demand and interactive response possibility. Later offerings may include:



  • Info Database

  • Health Info Medical News

  • Pharmaceutical Database

  • Insurance Info Database

  • Training
Challenges

The principal issues to be addressed in the project are:



  • Providing multicast push service of Live TV content for patients and IP-content on demand for doctors

  • Individual addressing of doctors and their waiting rooms for delivery and integration into live-stream of specialized content

  • Gathering feed-back of end-users: patients, doctors and medical staff

  • Verification of technical solution and content

  • Presentation of operating service to the business community especially with significant links to health issues

  • Verification of business case
Benefits

Execution of this pilot project is essential for the operational service of Health Information Services. Verification of the technical solution as well as fine-tuning of program with acceptance tests within the target group in the sensible health sector are indispensable preconditions for establishing efficient structures for a sustainable commercial service.

The project will demonstrate technical reliability and suitability of the proposed platform and transmission under consideration of eventual adjustments. Results of pilot will provide feedback to the specifications of technical equipment and installation. Market research results concerning content, as well as service itself and technical solution acceptance will be one more major benefit of the project. Only these studies can substantiate the assets of the new communication offer, convince the business community and the different other user groups to adopt the proposed system.
Features

The system architecture has the main task to deliver an ad-hoc TV program and specific IP based content to the End User Site. The pilot system platform spans several geographic locations. It encompasses a broadcasting centre, which is located at a content service provider site, a satellite Uplink Station, and edge media servers connected to audio, video, and data equipment at each end-user site. An overall picture of the pilot system platform is shown in the figure below.








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       The pilot system platform is a satellite-based multicast content delivery platform built on a flexible modular architecture and industry standards like DVB-S, DVB-MPE and UDP over IP. It provides a complete end-to-end delivery solution for live TV and IP-based digital media content.


Content is delivered starting from a broadcasting centre to multiple end user sites by means of a satellite Uplink Station and a geo-stationary satellite. At the broadcasting centre, content is aggregated from local and remote locations and targeted to specific end user sites by organising end users in closed user groups.

Scheduled aggregated content and live TV programmes are forwarded to the satellite Uplink Station. At the satellite Uplink Station, received content are multiplexed into the satellite destined transport stream for transmission via DVB-S. The satellite broadcasts the MPEG-2 transport stream from the Uplink Station to all End User Sites within the transponder's coverage.

At the End User Site, an edge media server receives the MPEG-2 transport stream. The edge media ser
Plan

The Project will be executed through these major stages:



  • Design and test of technical solution including HW and SW

  • Selection of suitable partners for satellite communications and logistics/installations

  • Acquisition and selection of 30 suitable end-users (medical practices and institutions) of varying specialization and size in different regions of Germany

  • Procurement and aggregation of multimedia-content

  • Installation of content delivery platform in Berlin and end-user equipment at selected sites

  • Pilot operation for approx. three months including technical verification and market research

  • Preparation of regular service
Current status

The project has been accomplished successfully. More partners could be won for the project as well in the area of service provision as on customer side. Active pilot operation with live broadcasting from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. was executed from October 2004 until January 2005. Live-program is created in cooperation with n-tv, the German news channel. All systems have been tested and optimized under operating conditions. They proved to be reliable and suitable.

Market research was one of the major tasks during the pilot phase. An independent market research institute inquired acceptance of program and technique at all participating sites. The data analysis is confirming the TeleSana-concept in its entirety, among others especially the programming based on health issues and news:

Summary of Patients poll TeleSana Live











  • Approx. 85 % of the participants of the poll have followed the TV program&

  • Nearly all were interested in latest news and health information:

  • For 80% of the questioned people waiting-time was shortened by TeleSana.

  • Approx. half of the visitors were interested in consumer information, product presentation and even 41 % in advertising.Approx. half of the visitors were interested in consumer information, product presentation and even 41 % in advertising.
 


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  • More than two thirds rated the program as entertaining, stimulating and pleasant.

  • 79 % rated the TeleSana program as informative, &

  • 78 % as interesting &

  • And 69 % as credible.

  • One third of the patients intended to address the doctor about perceived health information, another third had not made up its mind yet.

  • More than half of the questioned practice-visitors was belonging to the age group up to 45 years; the portion of women was just over 50%.
 


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After the pilot phase TeleSana will start the regular service. In a first step TeleSana will operate within a health-oriented environment in Germany.

Explanatory notes for result-charts: mark 1 = excellent, mark 2 = good, mark 3 = satisfactory, mark 4 = pass, mark 5 = poor

Documentation

Documentation may be requested

Last update
2024-04-23 12:33