raoul de forcade

The ever greater development in communication systems allows foreseeing, not fearing to be proved wrong, that sectors as health telematics and telemedicine will extend their scope in few years, at least by the economic social point of view. We asked Giuliano Reboa, president of the Assites, his opinion.
“A fast growth of these sectors is absolutely desiderable. But there's the need that it occurs without provoking too radical changes. Well then it's convenient that those who employ the system, physicians, nurses or patients - find telematic documents not differing too much in their look from the paper ones that were on use. It could be planned, if ever, how to optimize the readability of some information as for example by elaborating data arriving disaggregated.
So in the next future it will be not anymore the employer to learn how to interact with certain equipment but it must be this to transmit information immediately understandable. Even if the telematic employ clearly involves a good acknowledgement of technical means and a trained mind for personnel using it.
Next years there will be also and inevitably a rationalisation in the transmission data to be employed. Wide band nets requiring currently expensive infrastructures must be used only for applications requiring high transmission capacity. To transfer less complex information it will be enough instead the analogical nets being present uniformly all over the territory. It's foreseeable anyhow that the wide band nets costs will be destined to lessen in brief.
Furthermore it is conjecturable as soon as possible the widespread diffusion of new services of telemedicine even among the domestic users, till now interested more to the remote aid. The ever more decisive introduction of computers and Internet into everyday life will contribute surely to shorten the time needed for this process “.
But the must sensational development of the telematics applied to health will be the movable telemedicine. “By the means of digital platforms - Giuliano Reboa goes on - it will be possible in fact to intervene on emergency situations even on land vehicles, ships and aeroplanes, with a communication system able to reach rapidly data bank far from and to send and receive images.
It will be possible to carry out consultations and videoconferences on moving vehicles. Last year for example it has been presented at the Futurshow, a teleambulance prototype, able to face any kind of emergence.
Practically, thanks to a digital platform connected to a satellite, this vehicle can receive and transmit wide band communications, not only telephonic but also video, very high definition. Another interesting test, carried out at the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic of Bologna, is the “Hospital today”.
It concerns a virtual hospital on Internet planned to put specialists' consultation on disposal of the general practitioners. So in a future so next to be confused with present, medicine, thanks to telematics, will be able to intervene even at big distances from earth, for example in the orbiting stations carrying out deep analysis and allowing furthermore remote guided operations “.

Raoul de Forcade, journalist