The first German-Armenian Workshop on Telemedicine and eHealth took place on November 17-20, 2014, at Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University in Yerevan, Armenia. The Workshop was organized within the frameworks of the collaborative work that was initiated in 2012 by Georgi Chaltikyan, telemedicine and eHealth project manager at Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University in Yerevan, Armenia, and president of Armenian Association of Telemedicine (AATM); professor Michael Nerlich and professor Bernd Bloebel from the University of Regensburg Medical Center; and the CEO of German telemedicine producer Klughammer LLC Anna E. Schmaus-Klughammer. The workshop is a part of a project that aims at establishing educational, scientific and practical collaboration in the field of Healthcare Information and Communication Technologies between the University Medical Center of Regensburg (UKR), Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT), and telemedicine company Klughammer – on the one side, and Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University (RAU), and Armenian Association of Telemedicine (AATM) – on the other. The project is jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) and the State Committee of Science of Armenia (SCS).
The workshop featured presentations, discussions and practical sessions on current status and perspectives of development of telemedicine and eHealth in Germany and Armenia, presented by experts from both countries. Besides the project staff, on November 18th and 19th the workshop sessions were open to all interested in Healthcare Information and Communication Technologies. In particular, on November 18th Armenian physicians, healthcare managers, and technology groups that are working on, or have experience with telemedicine and eHealth projects and programs, presented their work (the program included a keynote on session of 15-minute long presentations). On November 19th German colleagues presented telemedicine and eHealth landscape in Germany and Bavaria, spoke about educational programs at DIT, and discussed telemedicine projects by Klughammer. On the same day Dr. A.E. Schmaus-Klughammer presented a hands-on training session showcasing Klughammer’s web-based telemedicine solutions – Campus Medicus and Case.io.
The project, envisaging among other activities, a series of three workshops to be organized over the period of one year (two in Armenia, and one in Germany), will further advance collaboration between the two countries in the field of Healthcare Information and Communication Technologies.