title: A feasibility study for the provision of electronic healthcare tools and services in areas of Greece, Cyprus and Italy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Through this paper, we present the initial steps for the creation of an integrated platform for the provision of a series of eHealth tools and services to both citizens and travelers in isolated areas of the southeast Mediterranean, and on board ships travelling across it. The platform was created through an INTERREG IIIB ARCHIMED project called INTERMED.
  
  
  METHODS
  The support of primary healthcare, home care and the continuous education of physicians are the three major issues that the proposed platform is trying to facilitate. The proposed system is based on state-of-the-art telemedicine systems and is able to provide the following healthcare services: i) Telecollaboration and teleconsultation services between remotely located healthcare providers, ii) telemedicine services in emergencies, iii) home telecare services for "at risk" citizens such as the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, and iv) eLearning services for the continuous training through seminars of both healthcare personnel (physicians, nurses etc) and persons supporting "at risk" citizens.These systems support data transmission over simple phone lines, internet connections, integrated services digital network/digital subscriber lines, satellite links, mobile networks (GPRS/3G), and wireless local area networks. The data corresponds, among others, to voice, vital biosignals, still medical images, video, and data used by eLearning applications. The proposed platform comprises several systems, each supporting different services. These were integrated using a common data storage and exchange scheme in order to achieve system interoperability in terms of software, language and national characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The platform has been installed and evaluated in different rural and urban sites in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. The evaluation was mainly related to technical issues and user satisfaction. The selected sites are, among others, rural health centers, ambulances, homes of "at-risk" citizens, and a ferry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results proved the functionality and utilization of the platform in various rural places in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. However, further actions are needed to enable the local healthcare systems and the different population groups to be familiarized with, and use in their everyday lives, mature technological solutions for the provision of healthcare services.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece. stavroula.mougiakakou@artorg.unibe.ch
authors.forename: Stavroula G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Mougiakakou
authors.forename: Efthyvoulos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kyriacou
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Perakis
authors.forename: Homer
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: Aggelos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Androulidakis
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Konnis
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tranfaglia
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pecchia
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bracale
authors.forename: Constantinos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pattichis
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koutsouris
mesh_terms: D003535:Cyprus; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006115:Greece; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018511:Systems Integration; D017216:Telemedicine