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TMA-Bridge at the closure meeting of CiTTis  TMA-Bridge at the closure meeting of CiTTis
The German city of Flensburg, just at the border with Denmark, was chosen as the symbolic background of the public conference presenting the final results of the CiTTis initiative, a three-year EC sponsored project for the collaboration between health centres in 4 regions across the border between Denmark and Germany.
The objective of this INTERREG IIIA project is to develop a framework where diverse telemedicine applications can be interconnected to facilitate collaboration between health care professionals in four regions, two from each side of the Danish-German border. A Collaboration Server, developed in a previous project (PICNIC), served as the environment for the provision of examination, monitoring, treatment and administration of patients via immediate access to expertise and patient information regardless of the location of the patient or the relevant information. A major focus of ciTTis was on the inevitable organizational changes that are necessitated when different organizations and health professionals work together. The Danish Centre for Health Telematics was coordinator of this project, which runs from 2002 to the spring of 2005. Borderless Healthcare Communication - Collaboration in telemedicine between Danish and German health services
The idea behind the ciTTis project is to make use of positive national experience at the international level. Health-care professionals in one country are able to draw easily and quickly on the knowledge that other experts in the network possess. The patient is given the best possible treatment provided in the most efficient way possible, regardless of whether this requires crossing national borders. If it becomes necessary to transfer the patient, this is backed up by flexible and reliable communication of patient data.
In the ciTTis project, hospitals in four regions on either side of the Danish-German border joined forces to garner experience from international telemedicine. One service being developed and tested in the project facilitates clear visibility of which expert resources are available at any given time. In addition, a cooperation platform - Collaboration IT-Service - is being established for use in flexible telemedicine collaboration. An important element in the project is the organisational development, which is to ensure that the project partners are all able to benefit from the new opportunities and facilities for cooperation and effective sharing of resources. On the meaning, status and future developments of European cross-border telecommunication in the medical field
TMA-Bridge, also presenting at the conference in Flensburg, exhorted the participants to integrate the achievements of this regional initiative into the global picture of initiatives of eHealth in Europe. Under this umbrella, the EC eHealth Action Plan, delivered by the commission last April was presented to the attendees, with a summary of initiatives in Europe related to transnational health services.
Participating organizations:
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