Lahn-Dill Hospitals in conjunction with Deutsche Telekom and Portavita aim to improve the care of the most seriously ill patients

• Telekom's first pilot project in the field of palliative care
• Patients want to be cared for in their own homes
• Care staff and doctors must deal with large amounts of paperwork
• Intelligent networking closes gaps in the care system and gets rid of information deficits

Deutsche Telekom, Lahn-Dill Hospitals and the Dutch IT company Portavita are launching an outpatient palliative care (SOPC) project in the Gießen-Wetzlar area. The companies announced their collaboration today at Medica, the world's largest medical trade fair, in Düsseldorf. To improve support through information and communication technology in the long term, the project will take place in collaboration with Witten-Herdecke University as research partner.

Palliative medical professionals, primary care physicians, care staff, hospices and religious ministers work together closely in caring for the most seriously ill patients. To ensure that all of the members of the care team stay up to date with developments in the patient's treatment, until now each care provider has had to send details of any treatment measures taken by letter or fax to the others. However, this manual documentation process is time-consuming and inconvenient. Strict documentation obligations and the high levels of organization required mean that until now treatment has usually been provided on an inpatient basis. Seriously ill patients, however, would prefer to receive the same level of care in familiar home surroundings, and since 2007 they have had a legal entitlement to receive this.

Electronic patient files bring doctors and care staff together
As part of the pilot project, in the future electronic patient files should simplify the documentation of treatment. As the records are web-based, all those involved in the treatment process can check patient information using tablet PCs while on the go or from the patient's bedside and enter any changes to medication or treatment targets directly into the file. This means that in emergency situations in particular, doctors can access patient records immediately and can react appropriately to the patient's treatment needs. To guarantee the secure nature of the network, Deutsche Telekom will provide the healthcare industry network for the project. This ensures secure data transmission and protection from unauthorized access.

Networking improves treatment, simplifies bureaucratic procedures and speeds up processes. "Our aim is for palliative medical professionals, carers, hospice staff, religious ministers and process managers to work as efficiently as possible together with technical support, so that each member of the team has more time for the patient," says Dr. Norbert Köneke, Medical Director of Lahn-Dill Hospitals.

With this palliative care venture, the Deutsche Telekom health care area is entering a new field of activity. Dr. Axel Wehmeier, Head of the Healthcare Group business area at Deutsche Telekom explained that "electronic medical records can be particularly helpful in palliative care in reducing bureaucracy and improving quality of care through better coordination. This makes palliative care an excellent example of the use of telemedicine."

The Dutch electronic medical records specialist company Portavita is again on board as a partner to Deutsche Telekom in this project with Lahn-Dill Hospitals. While Deutsche Telekom is responsible for the networking of participants and the necessary mobile devices, Portavita provides the web-based patient files. Telekom has been a shareholder in Portavita through its venture capital subsidiary T-Venture since 2009. Portavita Managing Director Evert Jan Hoijtink says, "As market leader in the Netherlands, we already provide some 200,000 patients with our electronic patient files. We are very pleased to be able to contribute to improving palliative care with another project in Germany." Portavita's electronic patient files are helpful not only for structured, cross-facility, inter-sector case management within the palliative care system; they are also available for the management of illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, asthma/COPD, cardiovascular risk management and oral anticoagulant treatment.

The contract will be signed on Thursday, November 17 at 2 pm, at the Medica medical trade fair in Düsseldorf, Hall 15, Stand G44.

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 128 million mobile customers, around 35 million fixed-network lines and nearly 17 million broadband lines (as of September 30, 2011). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has approximately 238,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 62.4 billion in the 2010 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2010).

About Portavita
Portavita is the leading provider of solutions for IT-supported, networked health care provision for chronically ill patients in the Netherlands, and also has a successful presence in Poland and Switzerland. Portavita's web-based electronic patient files (WebEPA) enable an integrated, interdisciplinary comprehensive treatment process, simplify the exchange of information and support coordination and communication between practices, hospitals, medical laboratories and non-medical service providers.

About Lahn-Dill Hospitals
Lahn-Dill Hospitals is a local hospital network company in the Lahn-Dill region. The hospital group, with hospitals in Braunfels, Dillenburg and Wetzlar, treats more than 37,000 inpatients each year. With some 2,000 employees, the Lahn-Dill Hospitals company is one of the largest employers in the region. Lahn-Dill Hospitals is entirely administered and operated by the Lahn-Dill regional authority. The hospitals provide the full range of specialized medical services. The priority for Lahn-Dill Hospitals is to provide patients with the highest possible levels of care, offering top quality medicine in familiar surroundings. To make this possible, the different medical departments work very closely together. This enables individual treatment concepts to be developed for patients at the highest level. It is the aim of Lahn-Dill Hospitals to continually improve treatment quality and patient care. To achieve this, the hospital association works with a broad spectrum of cooperation partners, such as primary care physicians, consultants and psychologists.