France and Spain seem to be the most dynamic European markets for e-health solutions targeting end-customers whereas as of new such services launched in other countries, for instance in Germany, in the UK, in Italy or in Portugal, most of such applications target professional users, for instance hospitals and health insurances rather than end-customers.
In Germany, Vodafone has been probably the first to launch a health application for end-customers, offering “Vodafone Care”, a service hotline staffed with a qualified team of doctors and assistants operated through Vitaphone, a German e-health service provider. Deutsche Telekom has launched very recently a new project through its subsidiary T-Systems and is currently testing some solutions, such as telemonitoring of patients with chronic heart disease. Other carriers operating in Germany, like Arcor, Alice, BT Germany, E-Plus, O2 or Verizon Germany have virtually no applications operated directly, although a couple of providers offer e-health services using the infrastructure of these carriers.
While e-health solutions targeting end-customers are still few, more choices are available for healthcare services targeting professionals. The German carrier Deutsche Telekom is quite active in this segment, through T-Systems, which offers, for instance, a VPN service specifically equipped with services targeting the healthcare sector; as well as an information-
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About this research: InfoCom’s research activities go far beyond what is traditionally intended by telecom consultancy, covering also new telecom services and applications. Based on a best practice analysis on 15 European countries, for over 30 vendors & service providers, this research illustrates how operators search for opportunities through new applications.