Digital Divide and Social Inclusion (VI): Information and technology in the Health system: Initiatives and good practices

Notes from the first II Conferencia Internacional Brecha Digital e Inclusión Social (II International Conference on the Digital Divide and Social Inclusion held at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid will be hosting at their campus in Leganés (Spain) on October 28th to 30th, 2009.

Parallel session: Information and technology in the Health system: Initiatives and good practices

Design of innovative practices for a synergistic attention of chronic diseases in the health and social environment with the assistance of ICTs. Rosetta project.
Emilio Herrera Molina

Increasingly, more patients develop chronic diseases, which pose serious problems related to assuming leaving with them, make their treatment economically sustainable, etc.

Different needs depending on whether you’re a patient, a professional, a technician, or a member of a directive board.

The Rosetta project will be applied to three chronic diseases (diabetes, brain-vascular accident, chronic obstructive lung disease) and link a catalogue of technologies with treatments that used those technologies in one of the selected diseases. E.g. someone used video-conference to do tele-assistance for diabetic patients. The idea being to introduce disruptive — while tested — new ways of interaction and assistance.

Indeed, in a world with more disabled people (a result of our longer life-expectancy) this project can bring technologies closer not only to chronic patients but to a larger group of people.

Digital literacy and main initiatives in Open Access in Health science
Jorge Veiga de Cabo

Digital literacy: much more than reading or writing, based in a functional approach. Skills, knowledge, attitudes to be fully functional in the Information Society.

In relative terms, we’re witnessing a (though slow) balancing in the international contribution to open access repositories in health-related subjects. See, for instance, the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).

Quality management: ICTs as cooperation strategies
Pedro Sa Moreira

From e-Health, the patient is reactive, to i-Health, the patient is proactive.

Quality management should lead to cooperation and be able to catalogue best practices, so to put them publicly available for these upcoming e- or i-patients.

Practice sharing should, of course, be based on open access repositories fed by institutions and individuals (professionals).

Quality management and knowledge management are two sides of the same coin.

A project for a Health Virtual Library for international cooperation
Carmen S. Ardila; Rosa Trigueros Terrés; María García-Puente Sánchez; Juan María de la Cámara de las Heras

Ayudsan, a platform oriented to make development cooperation programmes in Health easier, mainly fed with content by volunteer contributions.

Information in the site:

  • Training, including e-learning tools, a directory of professionals and trainers, etc.
  • Travelling protocols
  • Collaboration section, so that NGOs can interact and network amongst themselves or with individuals (e.g. volunteers)
  • Communicaton: f2f, virtual, multichannel, etc. enhanced by the site.
  • Virtual library

International collaboration and good practices in the management of complex chronic diseases through Web 2.0 tools: Observatorio de Prácticas Innovadoras en el Manejo de Enfermedades Crónicas Complejas (OPIMEC).
Diana Gosálvez Prados; A. Jadad Bechara; D. Gosálvez Prados; AJ. Contreras Sánchez; A. López Ruiz; F. Martos Pérez; J. Venegas García; E. Peinado Álvarez; A. Cabrera León

Why: chronic diseases are increasing and, due to their nature, pose severe challenges to patients, professionals, families, etc. Many of these challenges can be addressed through collaboration, and here is when Web 2.0 tools come to the rescue.

The OPIMEC (Observatory of Innovative Practices in handling Complex Chronic Diseases) gathers experiences in the field in a collaborative way. The platform is open and aims at helping people to share quality information, enable networking between professionals, etc.

Besides what’s on the website — impressive, BTW — the collaboration on the platform has produced books, directories of experts, etc.

More information

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II International Conference on the Digital Divide and Social Inclusion (2009)

If you need to cite this article in a formal way (i.e. for bibliographical purposes) I dare suggest:

Peña-López, I. (2009) “Digital Divide and Social Inclusion (VI): Information and technology in the Health system: Initiatives and good practices” In ICTlogy, #73, October 2009. Barcelona: ICTlogy.
Retrieved month dd, yyyy from https://ictlogy.net/review/?p=2930

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2 Comments to “Digital Divide and Social Inclusion (VI): Information and technology in the Health system: Initiatives and good practices” »

  1. Thanks for blogging! Could we consider that in the transition to Network Society, digital divide has to consider Health issues as a driver for inclusion (elderly, chronic patients and other groups)? and that initiatives in relation with ICT and Health has to pay attention to not generate new barriers to health services?

    I’m looking forward to work with you in our database “People living with chronic disease and the Internet in Catalonia Working in Progress”

    http://www.ictconsequences.net/2009/10/21/people-living-with-chronic-disease-and-the-internet-in-catalonia-working-progress/

  2. The older I grow ;) the more confident I am that there are three key issues in development in general and, especially, in how to leverage the power of ICTs, and in this order:

    • Health
    • Education
    • Governance

    So, definitely, e-Health is, to me, a field that deserves plenty of attention when talking about ICT4D and the Digital Divide.

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