A first group of Telemedicine Master Students will be enrolled at the University of Tromsø in august 2004

Telemedicine is, among other things, about how telecommunication technology might offer new ways of carrying out healthcare tasks. However, it is equally important for telemedicine workers to understand the mechanisms that encourage the implementation of telemedicine, and the corresponding inhibiting factors. Our master's program aims to give a comprehensive view of this field. After having completed the program, the students will be able to take into consideration all the important issues for a success.

The program will be a two-year study, recruiting undergraduates from a range of disciplines, and will cover topics like telecommunication services, telemedicine methods and applications, information management, and medical documents and images, as well as topics relating to organizational principles and the quality of telemedicine services. The program will use a definition of telemedicine which embraces the remote rendering of all health services, including services for patients in their own homes. It will endeavour to tie research-based education to the more practice-oriented use and development of telemedicine services. The master's degree will qualify students to take part in development and implementation of services and programs, to provide telemedicine education and to enter a PhD program. The students have to be located on campus but the course will have a considerable international focus.

One important goal is to ensure that adequate attention is paid to the multidisciplinary nature of telemedicine practice. Implementing telemedicine services or programs successfully very often depends on whether the technical medical/healthcare issues as well as the organizational aspects are dealt with coherently. For a telemedicine education program like ours this is necessary to reflect.

A full version of the description (In Norwegian) is available, please contact Gjermund Hartviksen

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