Specialist Task Force 264: Telecare in and outside Intelligent Homes - issues and recommendations for end user aspects (e-Health)

Who we are:

What we do :

The STF is funded by EC/EFTA under eEurope 2005 to produce a Technical Report (DTR/HF-00049) on “Telecare in and outside of intelligent homes; Issues and recommendations for end user aspects”. The final draft is anticipated for June 2005 and it’s publication in July 2005. The work is performed in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders of the telecare industry, in a most open way. 

The ETSI Technical Report (TR) will be developed, addressing end user aspects of telecare, with emphasis on the delivery of health- and social care services, in and outside of homes. It will identify key stakeholders including end users (covering generic, young, elderly, disabled and carer users), their objectives and requirements.  The TR will provide generic guidance to standards developers, operators, service providers, policy makers, designers and users of telecare solutions and services. It will also identify financial, technical and organizational barriers to the widespread adoption of telecare services, and recommend strategies to overcome these. The TR will provide human factors guidelines and carry recommendations for harmonization, standardization and future work.

Intended users of the TR are those deploying and implementing telecare solutions: standards developers (ETSI & others), service providers, legislators, policy makers, regulators and implementers, solution and equipment providers, interaction designers, developers of fixed and mobile terminals, services and applications and developers of Telecare solutions.

Read our Terms of Reference

Download the ETSI DTR 102 415 here (approved by ETSI TC Human Factors; under publication processing).

Why we do it:

In 2051, 40% of the European population is expected to be older than 65 years. There is an urgent need to address delivery of client-centred health care services over new channels, such as fixed and mobile broadband services in- and outside the home, aging societies requiring new approaches and the delivery of services to an increasing number of clients.

The European Commission’s eEurope action plans have recognized that "…the information society has much untapped potential to improve productivity and the quality of life" and that this potential "…is growing due to the technological developments of broadband and multi-platform access".  It provides a policy framework to stimulate the development of ICT infrastructure and application within Europe to enable he citizens to benefit from the growth of the information society. A key ambition is better care services at the same or a lower cost. 

“e-Health is today’s tool for substantial productivity gains, while providing tomorrow’s instrument for a restructured, citizen-centred health system and, at the same time, respecting the diversity of Europe’s multi-cultural, multi-lingual health care traditions.” e-Health has been identified as one of the priority objectives of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the e-Health Action Plan, identified and set up the practical steps required to build a “European e-Health area” (e.g. requiring that telecare services are provided and accessible over both fixed and mobile broadband networks by 2008 in the European Union).

National and international standards bodies have for many years addressed the needs of persons with disabilities, young and older people, developing specific standards in the areas such as assistive technology. There is a need for early European human factors standardisation involvement in telecare, as no dedicated human factors standardization work has been performed in this area previously.

The TR will provide support for the eEurope policy framework to move forward the delivery of on-line public services in the health- and telecare sectors, by addressing end user aspects and the user experience of telecare solutions. 

This work will put special emphasis on identifying and building consensus around the human factors standardisation activities necessary for the Human Factors of services, applications, content, infrastructure and security for Telecare delivery to and outside of intelligent homes. The TR will identify key issues and recommend standardisation actions for ETSI and its members to enable and facilitate the growth of care service delivery through intelligent homes environments and intends to:

• enable and promote the development and deployment of interoperable and commercially attractive Telecare solutions for the achievement of independence through the delivery of care services; and 
• make use of the enablers by untapping the potentials of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructures in combination with multi-modal user interfaces and IP technology, making the development and deployment of highly attractive, intelligent and efficient end user services and applications possible.

Time plan for the work:

If you would like more information, please contact the STF Leader, Bruno von Niman, directly on bruno@vonniman.com or via their mailing list: hf_telecare@list.etsi.org

Other STFs currently working for TC HF