At its XIV Meeting, held from May 5 to 8, 2009, in Cuzco, Peru, the Permanent Consultative Committee resolved to support the creation of a tele-health network of the Americas, a project presented by the delegation of Argentina.

This is an initiative complementing actions being carried out by CITEL in this area, taking as its framework the recommendations arising at the Second Summit of the Americas, which emphasized that the countries should indicate existing and emerging issues through greater use of communications technology and health surveillance; and the Third Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City, Canada, which attached special importance to “telemedicine,” an instruction reflected in the support provided by CITEL in preparing the book Tele-health in the Americas, presented in 2003 by PCC.I in conjunction with BDT/ITU, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and AHCIET.

The “Tele-health Network of the Americas” project presented is a proposal for the integration of and joint and collaborative efforts among intergovernmental organizations, regulators, faculties of medicine, hospitals, private telecommunication companies, and NGOs, wherein each stakeholder would contribute its experience and background with a view to forming a tightly-knit and experienced group available to provide support to whoever needs it, regardless of location and situation.

Heavily emphasized are content-related aspects, procedural manuals, standards, and the interoperability of actions, especially of equipment and their connectivity options, understanding that the most important aspects of the network will be its nodes and its academic commitment to the outcome of the objectives, especially the size of the budgetary allocation for equipment.

We also consider that involvement by local stakeholders, international organizations, government agencies, private companies, medical faculties, hospitals, and civil society ensures that consideration will be given to the operation and intensification of this type of project, whose specific actions may be noted in the medium- and long-term.

In the region and in our countries, we have seen important projects of this type under the authority of a single institution which, at times of instability, both political and economic, are assigned lower priority and less prominence on local agendas.

The general objective of the “Tele-health Network of the Americas” project is to create a tele-health network in the region for the incorporation of successful experiences and the promotion of local initiatives of regional scope, and to benefit from existing equipment and connectivity, and, fundamentally, the content and diagnostic evaluations of the region’s professionals and health and hospital services that are willing to join the network.

By making optimal use of existing equipment, disseminating best practices, and learning from mistakes, we will be able to develop, implement, and operate an integrated tele-health system supported by information technologies, with the aim of improving and expanding health care provision through national, regional, and international telematic networks.

This will be of undeniable benefit to different economically and geographically disadvantaged populations and will also consolidate professional development processes by means of clinical discussion groups, diagnostic collaboration among health professionals, and distance education strategies that utilize ICTs among peers.

The project’s specific objectives are:

• To identify local best practices in each country of the region based on the CITEL/OAS publication “Tele-health in the Americas”;

• To identify, convene, and bring together the different local and regional stakeholders in this area in order to form a specific working group;

• To bring together and coordinate national regulatory aspects and technical, medical, clinical, ethical, and legal protocols, and to establish comparative measures utilizing those indicators now established by international organizations, CITEL/OAS, the ITU, Regulatel, PAHO, and WHO in their different specific committees to enable the Tele-health Network of the Americas” to lay the groundwork for preparing an interoperability manual in this area for all above-described indicators;

• To develop diagnosis and management guidelines for the different specialties and their prevalent pathologies in order to establish specific clinical parameters for use in the approach taken to the different treatments;

• To develop a technological platforms for second consultations, digital clinical history (DCH), and collaborative efforts among health professionals;

• To prepare procedural manuals and standards of use for the different telemedicine equipment; videoconferences; peripheral telemedicine equipment, manuals for use; and similar equipment;

• With regard to connectivity, to prepare a connectivity manual, containing analysis of the alternatives available on each country’s market (IP, ISDN, satellites), in all their different fixed, mobile, and cellular options, to establish criteria for recommendations on the use of each option, and best expected performance depending on the type of connectivity utilized;

• To collaborate and participate jointly with local governments and ministries of health and of communications in educating and training the public, as well as medical staff and health professionals, on how to access prevention and health care programs supported by the telemedicine network;

• To encourage and promote health prevention design and provide a platform for special programs related to the specific health problems of each region (dengue, chagas, etc.);

• To create a portal that includes the different areas for the dissemination of advances in this area; 2 diagnostic consultations; professional development, tele-epidemiology, and basic and clinical research-related aspects and advances, so as to promote the incorporation of all health and educational units in the country, as well as interaction among different health professionals.

The interest of this network is to enable work to be done on projects in Latin America in the tele-health area with genuine influence within their sphere and which are consistent with cooperative effort and inclusion criteria as a means of optimizing efforts and avoiding strategic overlap, thus promoting success by taking account of the medium- and long-term.

The action plan of the Tele-health Network of the Americas will be presented in September at the next meeting of PCC.I, to be held in Argentina, for which the different delegations, organizations, and/or experts in tele-health are requested to contact the Network coordinator with the aim of providing contributions needed to enrich the planning of the actions envisaged.

We hope that such programs are sustainable and long-lasting, and that they outlive administrations, since it is desirable for them to survive the different political and institutional changes that occur in our countries.

To that end, we consider the mixed management model a very good resource. So too is analysis of strategies and policies designed to promote access to knowledge-based networks and different platforms and solutions, with a view to efforts to reduce the social divide, which will without doubt reduce the digital divide.

It is an honor and great responsibility to be able to coordinate such efforts. We have many expectations in that regard, and therefore hope to enjoy the support of all countries of the region.

Thank you very much.

Marcelo H. Petrich
Tele-health Network of the Americas
Coordinator
[email protected]