Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

News from the Implementing Transnational Telemedicine Solutions project

The Centre for Rural Health, University of Aberdeen, in Inverness has recently taken lead in a Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) strategic project entitled ‘Implementing Transnational Telemedicine Solutions’ (ITTS).

The project includes partners from six northern European countries; Scotland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is worth a total of €2.3M and commenced in September 2011 running until December 2013. The project will implement transnational telemedicine solutions, at scale, and in a sustainable manner, into everyday practice across the Northern Periphery.

Ten demonstrator projects on the themes of video-consultation, mobile self-management and home-based health services will be implemented in clinical specialities including speech therapy, renal services, psychiatry, emergency services, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, rehabilitation and care of the elderly.

Common evaluation methods including health economics will quantify the outputs. This project will carry on from the work carried out in the NPP funded Competitive Health Services project where existing best practices and innovations were piloted. It will also fund three new posts at the Centre for Rural Health.

David Heaney, the Project Lead and Associate Director at the Centre for Rural Health said, “The challenges of implementing solutions that are sustainable, transnational and at scale are considerable, but strategic investment at this time has the potential to transform health delivery in the northern periphery of Europe.”

Lee Dowie, the Project Manager, Centre for Rural Health said, “We are delighted to have this opportunity to develop telemedicine services within our project. We are looking forward to working with our partners across Europe, and learning from them.”

This project will demonstrate academic and service provider collaboration. The Centre for Rural Health will work closely with our Associate Partners, NHS Highland and NHS Orkney who have contributed staff time to ensure that the demonstrator projects in Scotland are delivered. ITTS will also feed into the P4 Digital Future of Health Care Agenda being developed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise.