Information & communication technologies - panacea for traffic congestion?

As road pricing, telematics and logistics evolve, information and communication technologies (ICT) aim directly at making traffic flow more efficiently in a given infrastructure. Furthermore, the virtual world gives rise to new business fields and decentralised structures which affect the development of transport indirectly. While technological progress continues to drive qualitative improvements in traffic conditions, e-business and telework in particular have, for structural reasons, a much less pronounced effect on traffic than widely presumed. ICT helps in organising traffic flows more efficiently and plays a supplementary role as transport-relevant instrument, but it is not a panacea for traffic congestion.traffic, autobahn, ICT, LBS, mobile telephony

Introducing realist ontology for the representation of adverse events

The goal of the REMINE project is to build a high performance prediction, detection and monitoring platform for managing Risks against Patient Safety (RAPS). Part of the work involves developing in ontology enabling computer-assisted RAPS decision support on the basis of the disease history of a patient as documented in a hospital information system. A requirement of the ontology is to contain a representation for what is commonly referred to by the term 'adverse event', one challenge being that distinct authoritative sources define this term in different and context-dependent ways. The presence of some common ground in all definitions is, however, obvious. Using the analytical principles underlying Basic Formal Ontology and Referent Tracking, both developed in the tradition of philosophical realism, we propose a formal representation of this common ground which combines a reference ontology consisting exclusively of representations of universals and an application ontology which consists representations of defined classes. We argue that what in most cases is referred to by means of the term 'adverse event' - when used generically - is a defined class rather than a universal. In favour of the conception of adverse events as forming a defined class are the arguments that (1) there is no definition for 'adverse event' that carves out a collection of particulars which constitutes the extension of a universal, and (2) the majority of definitions require adverse events to be (variably) the result of some observation, assessment or (absence of) expectation, thereby giving these entities a nominal or epistemological flavour

Human Values as the Basis for Sustainable Information System Design

Information systems (IS) play an increasing role for individual well-being [3], for the environment [4], and for society at large [5]. Considering sustainability in IS development is therefore becoming paramount. However, companies today associate sustainability with extra cost and burden on their operations. As a result, many view sustainability more as a demand and a challenge rather than an opportunity. In this article, we argue that companies should rethink this attitude, as both sustainability and a business model can be understood as deeply rooted in human values

Emergency TeleOrthoPaedics m-health system for wireless communication links

For the first time, a complete wireless and mobile emergency TeleOrthoPaedics system with field trials and expert opinion is presented. The system enables doctors in a remote area to obtain a second opinion from doctors in the hospital using secured wireless telecommunication networks. Doctors can exchange securely medical images and video as well as other important data, and thus perform remote consultations, fast and accurately using a user friendly interface, via a reliable and secure telemedicine system of low cost. The quality of the transmitted compressed (JPEG2000) images was measured using different metrics and doctors opinions. The results have shown that all metrics were within acceptable limits. The performance of the system was evaluated successfully under different wireless communication links based on real data

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the transition towards digital health solutions : evidence from telemedicine use in Germany

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way digital health services are perceived and valued has changed. To minimize the risk of virus transmission, digital health services have come to the fore in place of traditional health services. A prominent example of digital health is telemedicine as it is convenient, time saving, and meets the needs of social distancing. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine and the acceptance and use of this service by physicians in Germany. Country-specific characteristics of the German healthcare system are described, and physicians’ perceptions of the benefits and limitations of telemedicine are elaborated. The research consists of several expert interviews and an online survey among physicians in Germany. The results indicate that both, the acceptance and use of telemedicine among German physicians have increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, it is evident that telemedicine is only used in specific cases and that the service is currently merely a complement to traditional healthcare. The main benefits of telemedicine are the savings in travel time for physicians and patients as well as improved interactions between physicians, while the main limitations are technical difficulties and the lack of physical patient examinations. Physicians from university hospitals, who are young and have strong technological know-how are the main users of telemedicine in Germany. Although telemedicine has not yet reached mass adoption, the outlook on telemedicine is promising, as the view on digital healthcare has shifted.Desde o surto da pandemia COVID-19, a forma como os serviços de saúde digitais são compreendidos e valorizados mudou. Para minimizar o risco de transmissão do vírus, os serviços de saúde digitais têm vindo a ocupar o lugar dos serviços de saúde tradicionais. Um exemplo proeminente de serviços de saúde digitais é a telemedicina, pois é conveniente, economiza tempo e satisfaz as necessidades de distanciamento social. O objetivo desta tese é examinar os efeitos da pandemia COVID-19 na telemedicina e a aceitação e utilização deste serviço por médicos na Alemanha. São descritas as características específicas do sistema de saúde alemão e são elaboradas as perceções dos médicos sobre os benefícios e limitações da telemedicina. A investigação consiste em várias entrevistas feitas a especialistas e numa pesquisa quantitativa, um inquérito online, realizada entre médicos na Alemanha. Os resultados indicam que tanto a aceitação, como a utilização da telemedicina entre os médicos alemães aumentaram como consequência da pandemia COVID-19. No entanto, é evidente que a telemedicina só é utilizada em casos específicos e este serviço é atualmente, apenas um complemento aos cuidados de saúde tradicionais. Os principais benefícios da telemedicina são a poupança de tempo de viagem para médicos e pacientes, bem como a melhoria das interações entre médicos, enquanto as principais limitações são as dificuldades técnicas e a falta de exames físicos dos pacientes. Os médicos dos hospitais universitários, que são jovens e possuem um forte know-how tecnológico, são os principais utilizadores da telemedicina na Alemanha

Modular Architecture of Value-Added Applications for German Healthcare Telematics

Value-added applications of the German healthcare telematics aim at patient orientation as well as quality and efficiency improvements in the healthcare sector. Telematics services can be utilized in many ways, e.g., to guarantee security standards and interoperability. The electronic health card is merely one example. The design science oriented article presents the development and evaluation of a software architecture for value-added applications. In order to achieve better user acceptance, the architectural requirements were derived directly from the caregivers. The architecture is illustrated and evaluated by the example of electronic referral management. Typical functional units of medical processes are modeled in seven layers. The instantiation shows a structured application with high security standards which enables interoperability between heterogeneous existing systems and extensive control by physicians’ cooperatives. The architecture offers, for the first time in German healthcare, the opportunity to safely and reliably specify and develop a variety of value-added applications which can be provided via the telematics infrastructure

White Paper: promoting Design for All and e-Accessibility in Europe.

This White Paper results from the collaboration of Design for All (DfA) and e-Accessibility expert bodies representing the European Union member states [ref: the coordination centres of the national European Design for All e-Accessibility network (EDeAN) in 23 European Union Member States, in this document referred to as NCCs]. The objectives of this White Paper are threefold: (1) to present the current state of affairs of EDeAN, active since 2002 as part of the European Commission’s action line supporting the development of the European Information Society; (2) to outline a roadmap for future initiatives, actively reflecting views of the EDeAN network in specific domains related to DfA, e-Accessibility and e-Inclusion; and (3) to bring forward a set of suggestions and recommendations regarding the activities of the network, aiming to support the creation of a fully inclusive European Information Society. The paper is organised as follows: Section 1 provides a short introduction to DfA and Accessibility in Information Society (IS) and Information Society Technology (IST) developments in Europe. Section 2 provides an overview of policy as well as R&D activities related to DfA and accessibility in IST in Europe. Section 3 briefly describes the role of EDeAN and the new challenges that emerge as a result of the changing European policy environment. Section 4 presents current challenges that emerge in five domains directly related to DfA and accessibility, such as policy and legislation, industry, monitoring and evaluation—benchmarking, standardisation, R&D, and education and training. Finally, Sect. 5 puts forward a number of recommendations with regard to future activities for EDeAN. The contents of this paper reflect results from the open discussion forums supported in the EDeAN website (ref: EDeAN Special Interest Groups, SIGs). The draft paper was written by the EDeAN Secretariat for 2005, FORTH-ICS (Greece), and completed with the support of all NCCs. Support was also provided by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media and by the D4ALLnet project (ref: an EC funded project with the code IST-2001-38833)