Telehealth expert; e-Health expert; Expert in distance medicine

A Telemedicine expert is a professional who designs and develops specific systems and solutions for the practice of Remote Medicine. What is understood as Telemedicine or Remote Medicine is a very broad field which ranges from teleconsultation and telediagnosis to telemonitoring or telesurgery, the continuous training of health professionals and health management to health-related education and promotion in the community. This expert must be highly familiar with IT and telecommunication technologies and must have some working knowledge of medicine and management in order to be able to assess the needs of health professionals or citizens S/he must also know to apply his/her knowledge and available technologies to the development of suitable plans or systems.

• Analyse the health-related objectives of telematic projects assigned to him/her.
• Study the technological and financial requierments of the project and available resources.
• Propose and provide arguments to support solutions, defining the necessary organisational and technological changes to be implemented and the costs involved.

• Propose Telemedicine plans and systems to improve healthcare services, help make these readily available to all citizens, help ease the work of healthcare professionals, encourage the continuity of care across the different levels of healthcare assistance, speed up administrative procedures and improve the efficiency of the system.
• Evaluate the benefits of the changes proposed, providing supporting arguments based on feasibility studies and cost-benefit assessments.

• Install or supervise the installation of the various software and hardware systems and any additional equipment, such as: Communication networks allowing the interconnection of health centres, or videoconference systems in city councils or other social centres to enable consults in larger population centres (the patient can thus explain the symptoms suffered and the physician either prescribes a treatment immediately or refers the patient to a hospital, if necessary).
• Connect to the computer terminal (using a sound card or microcamera attached to the machine or any other component required to carry out a remote assessment, such as: a phonendoscope to check the patient's heartbeat, a laryngoscope or otoscope to visualise the throat or ears in high resolution.

• Install robotic arms or other tools and accessories the use of which the specialist surgeon will then direct via videocamera. Two of the robotic arms handle the medical instruments, and the third is devoted to handling the visualisation equipment.
• Also often looks after equipment maintenance and adjustments to changes which may occur in the organisations or in new medical techniques and knowledge.

• Must continuously refresh his/her knowledge of IT and telecommunication technologies and keep abreast of advances made in the area of medicine he/she operates in.
• In charge of training healthcare professionals who will use the implemented Telemedicine systems.
• Draw up procedure protocols.
• Gives courses or seminars.

Regulated training and graduates

• Grau: Enginyeria de sistemes de telecomunicació
• Grau: Enginyeria de sistemes i serveis de telecomunicacions
• Grau: Enginyeria informàtica
• Grau: Enginyeria telemàtica
• Grau: Enginyeria de xarxes de telecomunicació
• Grau: Enginyeria electrònica de telecomunicació
• Grau: Enginyeria informàtica de gestió i sistemes d'informació
• Grau: Informàtica i serveis
• Grau: Tecnologies de telecomunicació
• Grau: Infermeria
• Grau: Biologia humana
• Grau: Ciències biomèdiques
• Grau: Farmàcia
• Grau: Medicina

Complementary training

Other specific skills

Orientation within reach: Level 2

Communication: Level 2

Learning and use of knowledge: Level 2

Initiative: Level 3

Planning and organisation: Level 2

Analytical thought: Level 3

Management

The organisation, administration and control of a company or entity are the main interests of people related to the management field. Activities included in this field of interest vary from effective resource management, feasibility analyses and solving business problems to the development of skills and fostering of motivation in relation to human resources. Knowledge regarding specific techniques of strategic administration and business management are required to carry out these activities.

New technologies

People who show an interest in this field are motivated by the development and advanced use of new technologies in any of their applications (software, hardware, telecommunications) from an innovative perspective and in accordance with the continuous updates of technologies, programmes and equipment that appear on the market. The design, installation, management and maintenance of computer systems and new technologies are activities specific to this field.

e-Health consultant

e-Health specialist

Avionics software engineer

e-Commerce and payment systems consultant

E-learning tools designer

• Work hours

  Normally full time, with flexitime. During the project there will be some very intense phases in which many hours of overtime will be required, and other times where it will be possible to relax a bit more.

• Salary

  Highly variable, depending on the type of centre, education level, experience and post. Taking these criteria into account, average gross annual wages range from 35,000 to 90,000.

• Professional category

  Technician