Interreg IIIC Telemedicine Project Concluded

       

Further reading

• Interreg IIIC Telemedicine Project Concluded - Briefing Paper (1067)

By Guy Kasier, E&D Systems

This briefing paper presents the findings of the project 'Telemedicine and the consequences for urban planning and development' running from 2003 to 2007 in 4 countries. Its main findings are presented below:

Using telemedicine applications reduces the effects on the patient that can be caused by the place where care can be provided and by time-related factors. When drafting or modifying an urban plan, consideration will have to be given to a change in attitude towards this subject. As telemedicine affects the daily life of people (patients and carers), there is a direct influence on the daily routine, on transport requirements, on the planning of housing and accommodation and on the planning of healthcare services. Today, however, certain influences are still difficult to predict due to a lack of information and research. The change in transport requirements, for example, will depend largely on the way people use (or do not use) ICT’s potential in this regard. However, as the need for “face to face” contact will never entirely disappear, neither will classic transport functions, although, in theory, that is also a possibility.

Politicians and policy-makers must provide the necessary resources to explore telemedicine applications properly. Urban and rural-planners will also have to develop new models in which telemedicine has a place and, along with care-providers (doctors, nurses, etc.) they will also have to be adequately trained to understand the potential for and use of these new technologies. As in many other cases, the will to change and develop will be vitally important to implementing these new technologies.

This Interreg IIIC Telemedicine project provided an impetus to investigate the influence of telemedicine on urban planning. However, a great many questions remain unanswered. At the end of this conference, the closing sessions consequently highlighted the options of starting a European project to investigate the relationships between an ageing population group, an increasing number of people presenting chronic medical conditions with the promising developments in telemedicine as they relate to both urban and remote rural areas’ planning.