Objective ET-ASSIST is planning telematics support for the health care sector serving remote rural populations in Europe, or migrant or mobile groups such as expatriates and seamen. The key concern is maintaining a quality service when emergency patients are moved out of isolated regions or across national borders, sometimes into an unfamiliar linguistic or medical environment. The project will examine computerised and multimedia patient managment and health data systems as a means of accurately briefing all professionals involved in such cases, including local doctors, transport organisers and hospital staff.The main objective of ET-ASSIST is to provide professionals involved in medical care to remote rural populations, travelers or expatriates, and crewmen onboard ships, with a set of information processing tools to improve the continuity of care at regional, national and international levels. For instance, when an assistance company is requested to organize a sanitary transportation from one Country to another, a critical step is to reliably evaluate what risks and benefits may be expected for the person seeking assistance, as a patient first, but also as a customer of commercially available services. This evaluation requires an efficient cooperative work between regional healthcare structures acting on the spot, and assistance companies. In the case of sanitary transportations, the challenge of ET-ASSIST is to ensure the availability, from each transit location and to all actors dealing with the (remote) patient, of a set of objective medical data constituting an accurate and reliable image of its medical status and history, and to facilitate related administrative and financial operations. Handling emergencies in this way, demands that systematic procedures be defined and/or improved, taking into account, among others, differencies of languages and interpretation practices.The developments to be validated in the ET-ASSIST project bear on patient file management systems and on systems for the acquisition of physiological data and/or symptoms, accessible to computers. The main integration tool will be an X400 E-mail system allowing communication with other non standard systems. The integration methodology is based on the definition of a specific EDI (EDI-ASSIST), taking into account the work undertaken for EDIFACT. Assistance structures already make an extensive use of conventional communication technologies (about 12,8 millions of telephone communications in 1994, in France) evidencing the market potential for adapted telematics applications. The general promotion of standards (GEHR, SCP-ECG, EDI-ASSIST) is expected to contribute to the emergence of this market. Fields of science humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistorynatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencedata processing Programme(s) FP4-TELEMATICS 2C - Specific programme of research and technological development and demonstration in the area of telematic applications of common interest, 1994-1998 Topic(s) C.7 - Telematics Applications for Healthcare Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator MEDES, Institut de Médecine et de Physiologie Spatiales EU contribution No data Address 18, Av. Edouard Belin 31055 Toulouse France See on map Total cost No data Participants (7) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CENTRE HOSPITALIER DE CAYENNE France EU contribution No data Address AV DES FLAMBOYANTS 97300 CAYENNE See on map Total cost No data FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY- HELLAS INSTITUTE OF APPLIED AND COMP. MEASURES Greece EU contribution No data Address VASSILIKA VOUTON 71110 HERAKLION See on map Total cost No data Fogg Travel Insurance Ltd United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Crow Hill Drive NG19 7AE Mansfield See on map Total cost No data INDUSTRIEANLANGEN BETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT MBH Germany EU contribution No data Address 20,EINSTEINSTRASSE 85521 OTTOBRUNN See on map Total cost No data INTER MUTTUELLES ASSISTANCE SA France EU contribution No data Address 118,AV DE PARIS 79033 NIORT See on map Total cost No data SERVICIO DE SANIDAD MARITIMA Spain EU contribution No data Address 20,CALLE GENOVA 4A PLANTA 28004 MADRID See on map Total cost No data SYNDICAT INTERHOSPITALIER RIGIONAL D'ILE DE FRANCE France EU contribution No data Address 44,RUE LOUIS BLANC 75010 PARIS See on map Total cost No data