Dates
01 September 2011 - 31 March 2014
Overview
ITTS addressed the challenges of an ageing and geographically-dispersed population, encouraging the use of telemedicine in Europe’s Northern Periphery. Part-funded by the EU Northern Periphery Programme, this strategic project was led by CRH with partners from Norway, Finland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Ten demonstrator projects on the themes of video-consultation (VC), mobile self-management and home-based health services have been implemented across a wide range of clinical specialities:
- VC for speech therapy services (Ire, NI, Scot, Swed)
- VC for renal services (NI, Nor, Scot, Swed)
- VC for emergency psychiatry services (Nor, Scot)
- VC for remote diabetes services (NI, Scot)
- Smartphones for tracking physical activity (Ire, Nor, Scot)
- Smartphones and internet support for diabetes
- Smartphones for inflammatory bowel disease (Ire)
- Remote support in medical and social care emergencies (Fin)
- Remote exercise classes for rehabilitation (Fin, Ire, Scot, Swed)
- Home-based service delivery for Multimorbidity patients (Fin, Ire, Swed)
The strategy has been to learn from successful established telemedicine services in Northern Europe and to introduce these in other areas, to build sustainable solutions.
ITTS has supported the development of 25 new services at more than 40 sites in the six participating countries.
Common evaluation methods including health economics were used to quantify the outputs. Project results will also be used to inform the publication of Telemedicine into Everyday Practice - a guide (with an interactive checklist) for use by policymakers and service planners.
Aims
The aim of ITTS is to implement transnational telemedicine solutions, at scale, across the Northern Periphery region normalising the use of technology into everyday practice through transnational knowledge exchange to ultimately improve accessibility by situating services in local communities or in patients' homes.
Involved Partners
- Centre for Rural Health (CRH), Inverness [Scotland, UK]
- Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine (NST) [Norway]
- County Council of Västerbotten (VLL) [Sweden]
- Oulu Arc Subregion [Finland]
- National University of Ireland, Galway [Republic of Ireland, UK]
- Centre for Connected Health and Social Care [Northern Ireland, UK]
Impact
Publications
Casey M, Hayes PS, Heaney D, Dowie L, Olaighin G, Matero M, Hun S, Knarvik U, Alrutz K, Eadie L, Glynn LG. Implementing transnational telemedicine solutions: A connected health project in rural and remote areas of six Northern Periphery countries Series on European collaborative projects. European Journal of General Practice. 2013; 19: 52-58.
Eadie LH, Heaney DJ, Dowie L, Glynn L, Casey M, Hayes P, Matero M, Knarvik U, Hun S & Alrutz K. Implementing Transnational Telemedicine Solutions. The Sixth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine - eTELEMED, March 2014.
Funders
Northern Periphery Programme 2007-2013
Contact
Dr David Heaney, ITTS Project Director
