SummaryThe development of telemedicine and telecare has been changed all over the world the recent decades as practitioners and health care managers reached better understanding of the use of information and communication technologies to offer urgent and qualified medical services at a distance. Governments and health care providers have shown a large initial interest in the benefits of telemedicine services to reduce costs mostly for patient's transfer to tertiary hospitals or for educational purposes but have been slow to provide strategic plans and procedures in order to proceed the projects into practice. The paper identifies the involvement of governments, healthcare management, healthcare professionals and IT suppliers in telemedicine policy development and reviews the experience of Greece in the specific field which seems that despite the enormous scientific interest for both medicine and health informatics, the practice until now has not gained the expected results. Furthermore, the analysis concerns the critical success factors that have to be revised simultaneously with the main managerial principles for the design and implementation of quality telemedicine and telecare services.

The treatment of acute myocardial infarction (MI) constitutes a significant problem in remote geographical areas of Greece. Furthermore, thrombolysis, the treatment of choice in the early phase of acute MI, requires the supervision of an expert. We have used thrombolytic treatment, using telemedicine, in remote medical centres. The Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre was linked to six remote Aegean islands via telemedicine systems which permitted the transmission of 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs). The thrombolytic agent anistreplase was administered to patients with acute MI. Supervision, including consultation for treatment of complications, was achieved using the telemedicine system. One hundred and fifty-two ECGs were transmitted during 24 months, of which 108 (71%) indicated specific treatment of a cardiac condition. Ten cases were diagnosed as having acute MI and eight of these were treated with anistreplase. All patients survived acute MI and complications were treated locally. The application of thrombolytic treatment in acute MI is feasible in remote areas, with the use of a telemedicine system.

The aim of this study is to define and analyze the phenomenon of fake news and disinformation from social media in healthcare ecosystem. Social media and web platforms can be used to spread misinformation, which produces harmful consequences to global health and well-being. A qualitative research was carried out by using semi structured interview with experts for collecting the data investigating the social, legal and technical environment that promote this phenomenon. In order to shed some light, software tools and web platforms are suggested to those in charge of educating users on their best use of internet for this purpose.

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