2014 Award in Portugal
Technological Innovation & Telemedecine: to improve healthcare and patient care
Starting out over forty years ago with demonstrations of hospitals extending care to patients in remote areas, the use of telemedicine has spread rapidly and is now becoming integrated into the ongoing operations of various hospitals and health centres as well as consumer’s homes and workplaces.
Patient consultations via video conferencing, transmission of still images, e-health including patient portals, remote monitoring of vital signs, continuing medical education, consumer-focused wireless applications and nursing call centres, among other applications, are all considered part of telemedicine and telehealth.
HIT, Health Systems in Transition, more commonly refers to electronic medical records and related information systems while telemedicine refers to the actual delivery of remote clinical services using technology.
The goal was to reward a technological and innovative project that deals with one or several of the following issues:
- Primary care and specialist referral services
- Remote patient monitoring
- Consumer medical and health information
- Medical education
IBI-Cardiorotors, by Bruno Gil
IBI-Cardiorotors is a non-invasive diagnostic tool used in analysing the mechanisms underlying the appearance and continued presence of atrial fibrillation (AF), thus helping to determine the best strategy for treatment by catheter ablation.
A chest vest equipped by electric and magnetic field sensors is used to capture electrical information, either in outpatient environment (telemetry) or surgery. These sensors can build a cardiac 4D image based on impedance tomography maps, eliminating the need for 3D-Computered Tomography or MRI scans.
Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common abnormal heart rhythm
AF is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, and that which leads to the highest number of hospitalisations. Its occurrence determines the deterioration of the atria’s contractile function, irregular ventricular response, thus reducing cardiac performance and functional capacity, which has a negative impact on quality of life, morbidity and mortality. AF concerns nearly 1% of the world’s population and increases significantly with age, affecting 4% of people over age 60, 10% of people over age 80, and more than 17% of people over age 85. AF is also associated with structural heart disease, but can occur without any evidence of heart disease in one-third of cases, and in nearly half of cases involving young patients.
The jury consists of experts independent of Altran. They are selected based on the adequacy of their skills with the theme and can come from various backgrounds: research, politics, education, industry...
In 2014, the members of the Jury of the Foundation Award in Portugal were:
The President of the Jury Professor Dr. Henrique Martins, President of the Board of SPMS (Shared Service Centre of the Ministry of Health and the President of the Telemedicine Taskforce belonging to SPMS), specialised in Internal Medicine,
Members of the Jury:
Dr. Luís Gonçalves, Regional Coordinator of Telemedicine in Alentejo.
Dr. Luis Mota Capitão, Coordinator of Vascular Surgery specialty in CUF Descobertas Hospital in Lisbon; and Director of the department of Angiology and Vascular Surgery in Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon.
Dr. Fernando Gomes da Costa Head of Medical Service career in General Practice; Consultant/assessor in Regional Health Administration Center.
Adelaide Belo, Head of Internal Medicine in Litoral Alentejano Hospital.
- Portugal is the second country in Europe having the highest penetration of wind power in electricity consumption.
- 4,525 mw of wind power were installed at the end of 2012.