
e-Health / telemedicine
Lead Administration –
Isle of Man
At
the Second British-Irish Council Summit meeting in November 2001, it was
agreed that the
Isle of Man would take the lead on and progress work in the area of
health, in particular, the application of
telemedicine, i.e. the remote
diagnosis and treatment of patients by the use of telecommunications
technology.
The
Isle of Man, in consultation with other Member Administrations,
considered a number of key issues related to telemedicine within the
British-Irish Council. Officials met frequently to exchange information on
developments and best practice in this developing area.
In
May 2005, the
Isle of Man hosted a BIC Summit focusing on telemedicine and its
potential to modernise the delivery of health and social care. The Council
noted that telemedicine offers a unique way to address issues facing all BIC
Member Administrations, including in delivering health and social care to
rural and remote communities. The group continued to meet at official level
to take forward the recommendations of the
Summit. Work focused on addressing issues relating to interoperable
technical standards, a relevant clinical governance framework, appropriate
protocols for the secure electronic exchange of confidential data, and
quality standards for telemedicine and e-health information on the internet.
The application of information technology in healthcare has continued to
develop since the group’s inception in 2002 and has become internationally
recognised and understood as a component of the wider topic of
e-health. Accordingly, the BIC Summit in
London in June 2006 approved a proposal to change the name of the
group from Telemedicine to e-Health.
Following international developments in the field of e-Health and the
European Union (EU) became increasingly active in this are, the EU began to
look at the work of the BIC. In 2008, the Council, agreed that the work of
the group had been largely superseded by that of the EU and that this work
sector should be brought to a close.
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