New telemedicine project to become reality across Saxony in three years

Anna Fejdasz

Diabetes, heart failure, multiple sclerosis: Chronic disease usually means patients spend a lot of time – too much time – at the doctor’s office. Some quick, immediate advice in the comfort of their own homes would be a helpful resource.

The idea is for the contactless measurement of blood flow, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, and respiratory depth in a patient’s own bedroom or bathroom, in other words, to collect clinically valid data quickly and correctly in familiar surroundings. And that idea is to become reality in Saxony in just three years’ time. Electrical engineers, physicians, and computer scientists from TU Dresden are pooling their expertise in the new telemedicine project to develop innovative systems and processes for GP patient monitoring.

“The shift in medical care to the home is a growing trend that both reflects patient desires and is a response to demographic changes and growing cost pressures,” says Prof. Hagen Malberg, Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at TU Dresden, explaining the reasons behind many project partners’ involvement. “Dresden has the opportunity to become a pioneer in out-of-hospital medical technology. Here in Saxony, we have exactly the right skills and expertise.”

The Saxon Minister of Social Affairs and Consumer Protection, Barbara Klepsch, presented the official funding confirmation at the launch on September 21, 2018. She highlights the fact that “digitalization in the healthcare sector opens up new opportunities for the treatment of chronically ill people.”

First, a new type of medical measurement technology is to be developed in the Häusliche Gesundheitsstation (“home health system”) project. A particular focus is on user-friendliness. “This is all about a new generation of medical technology that increases accessibility for users and is therefore popular with patients, and does not simply gather dust in the corner like an exercise bike after three weeks,” Prof. Hagen Malberg tells us. The results of the project are to be incorporated into effective smart home solutions already on the market. This is why industry partners such as Jendrzik Haustechnik are also involved.

The second part of the project, led by Prof. Jochen Schmitt, Director of the Center for Evidence-based Healthcare, and Prof. Werner Esswein, Chair of Business Information Systems, is to develop an evaluation tool for further telemedicine projects in Saxony. This is intended to provide objective benchmarks for telemedical solutions – essential for their selection and implementation. 

The Häusliche Gesundheitsstation project is to run for three years and is receiving a total of over 1.4 million euros. Funding is being provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

More information: https://tu-dresden.de/et/ibmt

This article appeared in the Dresdner Universitätsjournal (university newspaper, UJ) 15/2018 of October 02, 2018. The complete issue is available as a free PDF download here. Printed copies and PDF files of the university newspaper can be ordered from doreen.liesch@tu-dresden.de. More information can be found at universitaetsjournal.de.