eCAN – Joint Action on strengthening eHealth including telemedicine and remote monitoring for health care systems for cancer prevention and care
eCAN aims to bring the benefits of eHealth to cancer patients in Europe, especially those living in remote and rural areas. It will explore the role and impact of telemedicine and remote monitoring with a view to improving their use and reducing inequalities in cancer care in the EU.
Telemedicine is a relatively new eHealth approach that brings various benefits, including:
- More efficient use of healthcare resources
- Wider access to care
- Minimal risk of transmission of infectious agents
As telemedicine becomes more prevalent, associated challenges are becoming apparent. These include misuse of services and patient data security issues. Telemedicine has also highlighted considerable variations across Europe regarding timely cancer diagnosis and the chance of survival due to inequalities in preventive policies and access to state-of-the-art diagnostics, treatment, and experienced care.
- Project duration
- 15 Sep 2022 - 14 Sep 2024
- Project locations
- AustriaBelgiumCyprusDenmarkGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyLithuaniaMaltaNorwayPolandPortugalSlovakiaSloveniaSpain
- Overall budget
- €4 995 796
- EU contribution
- €3 996 63780% of the overall budget
- Project website
- eCan - Strengthening eHealth for Cancer Prevention and Care
- EU4health - Projects
- Quality of life
Results
Technological solutions developed and used by eCAN will include a secure cloud-based platform for data protection, dashboards to support decision-making by healthcare professionals and tools for data analysis and visualisation and the future integration of artificial intelligence applications.
eCAN will also provide a set of recommendations to advance the integration of telemedicine and remote monitoring into European health systems and harmonise the use of telemedicine in cancer care in the EU. The recommendations will take account of the viewpoints of different stakeholders and ethical, legal and societal issues.
All project outcomes will be assessed for their sustainability and potential for incorporation into national policies.
By building cancer prevention and care capacity within health services and facilitating knowledge sharing between professionals, eCAN will boost preparedness among healthcare staff. This will improve care both for cancer patients living in remote areas and in situations when patients must be isolated, such as during cross-border emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding
Contact
Dr Marc Van den Bulcke
- Name
- Dr Marc Van den Bulcke
- Organisation
- Cancer Centre, Sciensano
- eCAN
sciensano [dot] be - Phone number
- (+32) 2 642 5760
