Sodelovanje v projektu Telemedicina

TEAM Project: Supporting Innovation in Telemedicine Education with Cross-European Collaboration

Date: 17 November 2023

The Telemedicine Education Advancement through Micro-credentials (TEAM) project officially commenced with an inaugural virtual kick-off meeting on November 16, 2023. This international collaborative effort, co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus programme (Cooperation partnership in Higher Education), involves partners from six European countries: Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Ukraine, and Romania.

In light of the European telemedicine market’s rapid growth, projected to escalate from €11.6 billion in 2020 to €27 billion by 2025, TEAM addresses a critical barrier: the shortage of IT training among healthcare providers. The European Commission and the World Health Organization have both stressed the necessity of structured telemedicine training to fully leverage this burgeoning sector.

The TEAM project aims to revolutionise digital health and telemedicine education by developing flexible learning pathways that align with global best practices. It focuses on addressing challenges such as limited digital literacy and aims to bolster cross-sectoral collaboration. The initiative is especially pivotal for countries with urgent healthcare needs.

The kick-off meeting, led by the project coordinator, Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto (FIS), brought together a consortium of European educational and healthcare organizations. Representatives from each partner organization outlined their contributions and roles, setting the stage for a collaborative and effective project implementation.

Notably, the project targets primary groups including higher education students in healthcare and IT, faculty, educators, and institutions, as well as secondary groups like healthcare professionals, IT professionals, policy-makers, stakeholders, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) institutions.

In the meeting, FIS presented the project overview, emphasizing the objectives, expected impacts, and strategic implementation approaches. RIT Croatia introduced Work Package 2 (WP2), focusing on Telemedicine Education and Industry Partnership Mapping, which lays the foundation for future project activities. Other crucial components such as the Micro-credentials in Telemedicine (WP3), Test & Validation, and the Telemedicine Digital Warehouse (WP4) were also discussed.

The TEAM project not only signifies a major step forward in telemedicine education but also serves as a beacon of EU-wide collaboration in enhancing healthcare services through digital innovation.

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TEAM Project: completion of common methodology for analysis to drive cross-European telemedicine research

Date: 18 March 2024

The Telemedicine Education Advancement through Micro-credentials (TEAM) project has achieved a significant milestone with the completion of the common methodology for analysis. Co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme (Key Action 2: Cooperation Partnerships), this methodology, designed to serve as the analytical framework for Work Package 2 (WP2), will support partners across six European countries—Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Ukraine, and Romania—in conducting a comprehensive and comparative analysis of telemedicine education and industry needs.

The common methodology provides essential guidelines for circumscribing the research field, ensuring that the diverse analyses conducted by each partner remain aligned. By standardizing research parameters, the methodology ensures that data gathered from various countries is comparable, facilitating the synthesis of findings and a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the telemedicine sector across Europe.

This crucial step marks the beginning of in-depth research efforts under WP2, which focuses on mapping the landscape of telemedicine education and industry partnerships. The methodology will guide the collection and analysis of data, enabling the TEAM project to address key barriers such as limited digital literacy among healthcare providers and support the development of flexible learning pathways in telemedicine.

The TEAM project aims to foster innovation in digital health education by leveraging cross-sectoral collaboration and empowering healthcare and IT students to respond to the growing demand for telemedicine services, especially in regions with urgent healthcare needs.

With this achievement, the TEAM project continues to drive forward its mission of promoting excellence in telemedicine education and advancing the digital skills of future healthcare professionals. The upcoming analysis will be pivotal in shaping the project’s next phases and providing actionable insights for telemedicine training across Europe.

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TEAM Project: Launch of the telemedicine digital warehouse
Date: 15 May 2024

The Telemedicine Education Advancement through Micro-credentials (TEAM) project, co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, is proud to announce the official launch of the Telemedicine Digital Warehouse, a key digital tool supporting the project's efforts to revolutionize telemedicine education across Europe.

The Telemedicine Digital Warehouse comprises two core components:

1. Project Information Platform:
   This platform provides comprehensive information about the TEAM project, including its goals, activities, main results, consortium details, and news updates. The platform serves as the central hub for all project-related updates and is available at https://team-project.eu/. Through this resource, stakeholders can stay informed about the progress and outcomes of the TEAM project, fostering transparency and engagement across sectors.

2. Learning Platform:
   The second component of the warehouse is the Learning Platform, designed to host the project's training materials. This platform will play a pivotal role in testing and validating the innovative learning pathways developed within the framework of the TEAM project. Students, educators, and healthcare professionals will have access to cutting-edge telemedicine training resources. The platform can be accessed at https://app.team-project.eu/, serving as a vital digital tool for the delivery and evaluation of telemedicine education.

Both components are available in a multilingual format, comprising all the languages of the TEAM project (English, Croatian, Slovenian, Greek, Ukrainian, and Romanian). This ensures broad accessibility, enabling diverse users from the six participating countries to fully engage with the project’s resources and results. The multilingual approach reflects the TEAM project's commitment to inclusivity and its dedication to addressing the diverse healthcare and educational needs across Europe.

The Telemedicine Digital Warehouse is a major milestone for the TEAM project, offering a unified and accessible platform that will enhance collaboration, learning, and innovation in digital health and telemedicine education.

 

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TEAM Project: Executive Summary of Telemedicine Education and Industry Partnership Mapping (WP2) Released

Date: 30 August 2024

The Telemedicine Education Advancement through Micro-credentials (TEAM) project, co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, has reached another critical milestone with the completion of the Executive Summary of the Telemedicine Education and Industry Partnership Mapping (WP2). This summary provides key insights into the current state of telemedicine education, training programs, and industry partnerships across five participating countries: Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine, as well as a general report on the EU.

The WP2 Executive Summary highlights several important findings:

1.     Mapping telemedicine education: The study identified the existing telemedicine education and training programs in each participating country, focusing on their scope, reach, and alignment with modern healthcare needs. It highlighted gaps in digital literacy and the need for enhanced training for healthcare professionals to fully integrate telemedicine into everyday practice.

2.     Skills gap analysis: The report identified a significant gap in telemedicine-related skills, especially in rural and underserved areas. Healthcare providers often lack the necessary digital competencies, making it difficult to effectively utilize telemedicine technologies and deliver remote care.

3.     Digital infrastructure: While several countries, such as Croatia and Greece, have made notable progress in deploying telemedicine centers and mobile health units, the report emphasizes the need for further investment in digital infrastructure, particularly in rural and remote regions, to ensure equitable access to telemedicine services.

4.     Legislative and regulatory challenges: Regulatory frameworks vary significantly across countries. The report underscores the need for harmonized regulations that address licensing, reimbursement, and data privacy, which are essential for the sustainable adoption of telemedicine.

5.     Partnerships with industry: The summary stresses the importance of fostering partnerships between educational institutions and industry stakeholders. By strengthening these relationships, the TEAM project aims to encourage the adoption of telemedicine practices and promote the development of digital health training programs that are in line with industry needs.

6.     Opportunities for growth: Despite the challenges, there are numerous opportunities to expand telemedicine education, including government-backed initiatives and investments in telemedicine infrastructure. Romania, for instance, has allocated €100 million for telemedicine as part of its Recovery and Resilience Plan, emphasizing the potential for large-scale adoption.

The Executive Summary not only provides a clear roadmap for addressing the challenges and opportunities in telemedicine education but also highlights the TEAM project’s continued commitment to advancing digital health and creating a workforce capable of meeting Europe’s healthcare needs.

The findings and recommendations will inform the next steps of the TEAM project, as the consortium moves forward with the development of comprehensive training resources and digital tools to support telemedicine education and industry integration.

 

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TEAM Project Partners Convene for Crucial Transnational Meeting in Brussels
Date: 17 September 2024
The Telemedicine Education Advancement through Micro-credentials (TEAM) project reached
a significant milestone on 17 September 2024 with a transnational project meeting held in Brussels,
hosted by the Institut de Haute Formation aux Politiques Communautaires (IHF). The meeting
brought together project partners from Belgium, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Greece and Ukraine,
to discuss the progress of the project as it nears the completion of its first year. During this meeting,
the consortium focused on two key areas of the project:

1. Completion of WP2 – Telemedicine Education and Industry Partnership Mapping:
Partners reviewed the key findings from Work Package 2 (WP2), which culminated in the
Executive Summary of Telemedicine Education and Industry Partnership Mapping.
This report has provided valuable insights into the current state of telemedicine education,
identifying gaps in skills and infrastructure across the participating countries. The discussion
centered around how these findings will shape the next stages of the project.

2. Transition to WP3 – Development of Training Material:
The meeting marked a crucial turning point as the project transitions from WP2 into Work
Package 3 (WP3), which focuses on the development of the TEAM project’s training
materials. These materials will form the core of the innovative learning pathways aimed at
enhancing digital health and telemedicine education. The consortium discussed the structure,
content, and methodology for developing these materials, ensuring alignment with the needs
identified in WP2 and with global best practices in digital health education.
As the project moves forward, the partners are committed to ensuring that the training materials
developed in WP3 will be tested and validated through the project’s digital learning platform. This
platform will be a vital tool for healthcare and IT students, as well as professionals, to acquire the
necessary skills for telemedicine, especially in regions with critical healthcare demands.
This meeting, held almost at the conclusion of the project's first year, highlighted the TEAM
project’s progress and laid the groundwork for the successful development and dissemination of
telemedicine training resources. The consortium expressed optimism about the next phase and
reaffirmed its commitment to fostering innovation in digital health education across Europe.