The ALIAS project is aimed at delivering and piloting two telemedicine-related services, more specifically:
Information provision: this service will allow healthcare professionals of any ALIAS hospital network to access information about a patient coming from any (other) ALIAS region, upon his/her consent, and
Advice querying: this service will allow any healthcare professional of the ALIAS hospital network using telemedicine tools to require expert advice on a patient under treatment, upon his/her consent.
Telecommunication tools will be conceived to be used both in a synchronous and an asynchronous way.
In order to achieve those goals, the ALIAS project is organised with a cascade approach articulated over four main phases: project preparation; service definition and development; Network creation and training; piloting and deployment.
Information provision: this service will allow healthcare professionals of any ALIAS hospital network to access information about a patient coming from any (other) ALIAS region, upon his/her consent, and
Advice querying: this service will allow any healthcare professional of the ALIAS hospital network using telemedicine tools to require expert advice on a patient under treatment, upon his/her consent.
Telecommunication tools will be conceived to be used both in a synchronous and an asynchronous way.
In order to achieve those goals, the ALIAS project is organised with a cascade approach articulated over four main phases: project preparation; service definition and development; Network creation and training; piloting and deployment.
The project preparation activity (WP1) has been a long process aimed at building consensus around the project idea, consolidating the partneship, preparing and submitting the project.
Dissemination and coordination activities (respectively WP3 and WP2) cover the entire execution of the project
ALIAS operational work packages are:
Dissemination and coordination activities (respectively WP3 and WP2) cover the entire execution of the project
ALIAS operational work packages are:
- WP4 Service definition consists of precisely identifying and defining the services expected of ALIAS.
It concerns two services: providing information and advice to healthcare professionals.
This work package is currently running, and user requirements are undergoing final adjustments. - WP5 Development and validation consists of defining the architecture and creating the software services of the virtual hospital network.
- WP6 Network creation and Training prepares the 8 participating hospitals to ensure the success of the operational pilot demonstration of the virtual hospital network.
- WP7 Piloting & Assessment will test and evaluate the practical application of the VH network in the 8 pilot hospitals involved in the project. The evaluation will assess user satisfaction of the prototype.
The ALIAS services will be used in everyday procedures to mimic the scenario that can be expected after full deployment of the Network. - WP8 Deployment will help reinforce the virtual hospital network, extending it to additional providers of the cooperation area and fostering the participation of additional Observers.
February 2008 – August 2009 (The first period)
The first period of ALIAS activities has been dedicated to the fulfilment of a twofold objective.
On one side, effort has been dedicated to the preparation and submission of the project Expression of Interest (EoI) and, subsequently, of the AF.
This activity has consisted of a number of online and face-to-face meetings to complete and consolidate the project partnership, joint actions to build consensus around the project idea, frequent and constructive contacts with the Programme National Contact Points.
Once the EoI has been approved, the full project Application Form was submitted, enlarging the current partnership to Germany.
On the other side, this first period of activities has been dedicated to the launch of the project itself.
Activities related to management, information and publicity, and ALIAS service definition have started in a timely and organised manner avoiding dangerous deviations which might affect, since the beginning, the achievement of project objectives.
This first period saw the start and conclusion of ALIAS WP1 and the start of WP2, WP3 and WP4.
Activities performed within WP1 mainly consisted of the preparation and submission of ALIAS EoI and, subsequently, AF.
The main result achieved within this WP has been the completion of the ALIAS AF, its timely submission and the award of grants.
The activities performed within WP2, WP3 and WP4 have been mainly dedicated to the launch of project activities.
For WP2 August has been dedicated to the organisation of the ALIAS kick off meeting, the project's public presentation, the first PSG and TC meetings.
For WP3, first contacts with journalists have been established and a professional communication agency, which can follow the ALIAS logo production, has been identified.
WP4 has dedicated its effort to the preparation of its first meeting and related material.
All WPs ongoing during the reporting period saw the full and active involvement of all project participants.
September 2009 – February 2010 (The second period)
The second period saw the continuation of the activities related to management (WP2), information&publicity (WP3), and the functional and technical specification definition of the services (WP4).
Several meetings were held with the twofold aim of properly advancing with ALIAS work and of consolidating the project partnership.
Part of the work concentrated on the analysis of the current state of Partners' IT systems in the healthcare sector and on a first description of services that will be deployed in the framework of ALIAS.
This has given the reference framework on which the analysis of ALIAS pilots regional/national legal framework focused, in order to identify major constraints related to services implementation. Moreover, Partners have started analysing the most suitable technical solutions to be used in the development of the ALIAS services to be compliant with user needs and the regulatory framework.
During the second period, some important results have been achieved.
Four deliverables have been finalised and approved, the Project Management and Quality Manual, the Project Logo and Newsletter 1, and the User requirements specification and scenarios description.
The first deliverable serves to facilitate cooperation among Participants in the ALIAS project by defining a set of rules for the organisation of the day-to-day cooperative work.
The Project Logo is currently used in all official documents and presentations related to ALIAS.
The users' requirements specification and scenarios description represents the first pillar on which functional and technical specification of the ALIAS services platform will be shaped.
Two Project Steering Groups meetings and project Technical Meetings have been held, the first in September, in Milano, together with the project kick off meeting and public presentation, the second in December in Udine.
March 2010 - September 2010 (The third period)
The period has foreseen the continuation of the activities related to management, information&publicity and Services Functional and Technical specs definition and the start of Network Creation & Training activities.
Functional specs work has been concentrated on deepening the legal analysis due to the clear influence of the regulatory framework and non-functional specs on services functionalities.
The output of this analysis have had a deep impact on the technical work: on the architecture design and identification of technologies suited to translate functional requirements in technical specs.
Technical choices have been also guided by the principle of facilitating ALIAS integration with the systems already in use in each pilot.
Within Network Creation & Training a survey has been performed on the existing eServices in each pilot site.
Its results have been used also to address some technical open points.
Management and Information&Publicity activities have been carried out as planned.
Moreover, the third period has been dedicated to the development of fundamental activities and fostering of collaboration between PPs.
The importance of the interrelations between ALIAS central workpackages has been more evident in terms of influence of each activity on the others.
All PPs have concentrated their effort on the enrichment and refinement of two deliverables: Legal constrains and Services specifications.
Technical partners have used the output of the above mentioned activities to properly design the ALIAS central system architecture and to be supported in technical choices related to the two services development.
This activity has been also fed by the first results achieved within the Network Creation & Training.
Two Project Steering Groups meetings and Technical Meetings have been held, in March and July in Genève and in Grenoble, one technical meeting has been held in Milan in June and a virtual meeting to check project progress has been held in July.
The first period of ALIAS activities has been dedicated to the fulfilment of a twofold objective.
On one side, effort has been dedicated to the preparation and submission of the project Expression of Interest (EoI) and, subsequently, of the AF.
This activity has consisted of a number of online and face-to-face meetings to complete and consolidate the project partnership, joint actions to build consensus around the project idea, frequent and constructive contacts with the Programme National Contact Points.
Once the EoI has been approved, the full project Application Form was submitted, enlarging the current partnership to Germany.
On the other side, this first period of activities has been dedicated to the launch of the project itself.
Activities related to management, information and publicity, and ALIAS service definition have started in a timely and organised manner avoiding dangerous deviations which might affect, since the beginning, the achievement of project objectives.
This first period saw the start and conclusion of ALIAS WP1 and the start of WP2, WP3 and WP4.
Activities performed within WP1 mainly consisted of the preparation and submission of ALIAS EoI and, subsequently, AF.
The main result achieved within this WP has been the completion of the ALIAS AF, its timely submission and the award of grants.
The activities performed within WP2, WP3 and WP4 have been mainly dedicated to the launch of project activities.
For WP2 August has been dedicated to the organisation of the ALIAS kick off meeting, the project's public presentation, the first PSG and TC meetings.
For WP3, first contacts with journalists have been established and a professional communication agency, which can follow the ALIAS logo production, has been identified.
WP4 has dedicated its effort to the preparation of its first meeting and related material.
All WPs ongoing during the reporting period saw the full and active involvement of all project participants.
September 2009 – February 2010 (The second period)
The second period saw the continuation of the activities related to management (WP2), information&publicity (WP3), and the functional and technical specification definition of the services (WP4).
Several meetings were held with the twofold aim of properly advancing with ALIAS work and of consolidating the project partnership.
Part of the work concentrated on the analysis of the current state of Partners' IT systems in the healthcare sector and on a first description of services that will be deployed in the framework of ALIAS.
This has given the reference framework on which the analysis of ALIAS pilots regional/national legal framework focused, in order to identify major constraints related to services implementation. Moreover, Partners have started analysing the most suitable technical solutions to be used in the development of the ALIAS services to be compliant with user needs and the regulatory framework.
During the second period, some important results have been achieved.
Four deliverables have been finalised and approved, the Project Management and Quality Manual, the Project Logo and Newsletter 1, and the User requirements specification and scenarios description.
The first deliverable serves to facilitate cooperation among Participants in the ALIAS project by defining a set of rules for the organisation of the day-to-day cooperative work.
The Project Logo is currently used in all official documents and presentations related to ALIAS.
The users' requirements specification and scenarios description represents the first pillar on which functional and technical specification of the ALIAS services platform will be shaped.
Two Project Steering Groups meetings and project Technical Meetings have been held, the first in September, in Milano, together with the project kick off meeting and public presentation, the second in December in Udine.
March 2010 - September 2010 (The third period)
The period has foreseen the continuation of the activities related to management, information&publicity and Services Functional and Technical specs definition and the start of Network Creation & Training activities.
Functional specs work has been concentrated on deepening the legal analysis due to the clear influence of the regulatory framework and non-functional specs on services functionalities.
The output of this analysis have had a deep impact on the technical work: on the architecture design and identification of technologies suited to translate functional requirements in technical specs.
Technical choices have been also guided by the principle of facilitating ALIAS integration with the systems already in use in each pilot.
Within Network Creation & Training a survey has been performed on the existing eServices in each pilot site.
Its results have been used also to address some technical open points.
Management and Information&Publicity activities have been carried out as planned.
Moreover, the third period has been dedicated to the development of fundamental activities and fostering of collaboration between PPs.
The importance of the interrelations between ALIAS central workpackages has been more evident in terms of influence of each activity on the others.
All PPs have concentrated their effort on the enrichment and refinement of two deliverables: Legal constrains and Services specifications.
Technical partners have used the output of the above mentioned activities to properly design the ALIAS central system architecture and to be supported in technical choices related to the two services development.
This activity has been also fed by the first results achieved within the Network Creation & Training.
Two Project Steering Groups meetings and Technical Meetings have been held, in March and July in Genève and in Grenoble, one technical meeting has been held in Milan in June and a virtual meeting to check project progress has been held in July.
