TEMOS - Telemedical support for travellers and expatriates

Kurzfassung

Introduction: Each year 45 million German tourists travel to foreign countries, 33,000 expatriates are working abroad. Additionally, millions of short term business trips are performed. 8% of this collective need medical support during their stay, one of 250 travellers is hospitalised and about 26.000 patients have to be repatriated annually. Travelers visiting countries with special health risks usually visit their physician, pharmacist or the internet to get advice regarding health precaution in the run-up to the journey. But people do not know: • where to go in case of an emergency abroad • whether the diagnosis of the foreign doctors is reliable • whether the quality of treatment is all right or whether repatriation is necessary Objective: The TEMOS project has been established within the ARTES-III program of the European Space Agency (ESA) to support travellers and expatriates with medical expertise during their stay abroad, to improve knowledge in travel medicine of the patient’s general practitioner and to provide information on medical institutions abroad. Methods: To fulfil these aims the TEMOS telemedical platform has been established combining a satellite based communication and education platform and an Internet based hospital data base containing information on so called certified TEMOS- and non-TEMOS hospitals and medical institutions. The satellite platform on one hand connects the TEMOS Telemedical Reference Center (TTRC) to the TEMOS hospitals. It offers the possibility for the hospitals to perform case discussions within video conferences with medical experts. The MedSky platform integrates an electronic patient record, a communication tool for the TEMOS members and a booking module for guaranteed satellite bandwidth. Live lectures for Continuous Medical Education (CME) can be held on the satellite platform e.g. for participants of the courses of the Center for Travel Medicine (CRM), for the physicians of the TEMOS hospitals abroad and vice versa. The TEMOS hospital database has been created to collect data on hospitals abroad, providing medical care following TEMOS standards (TEMOS certification). and on non-TEMOS-hospitals as well. Conclusion: TEMOS aims on an improvement of medical care for travellers worldwide by improving the medical preparation for a trip, by supporting travellers and assistance companies to select suitable medical institutions in case of illness and by offering medical expertise to hospitals abroad. Beyond enhanced quality of care a reduction of costs of medical assistance cases is expected by a reduction of unnecessary repatriations.