2004-2005

News Release

REF NO.: 302

SUBJECT: Memorial University key player in first Hispano-Canadian meeting on Telemedicine

DATE: April 21, 2005

Next week a group of Canadian speakers, many from Newfoundland, will participate in the first Hispano-Canadian Meeting on Telemedicine being held in Madrid, Spain, April 25-27. The meeting, which has been organized by Dr. Max House, professor emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and professor Pablo Gil-Loyzaga of the Faculty of Complutense in Madrid, has been substantially supported by the Government of Autonomous Region of Madrid.

The meeting will be held in Madrid’s senior teaching hospital with some speakers participating by videoconference in St. John’sand Toronto. The Hispano-Canadian meeting was conceived at a meeting hosted by the Canadian Embassy in Madrid last April. Ambassador Marc Lortie and his staff have given strong support for the planning and for the meeting itself.

The main aims of the meeting are the presentation of the telemedicine projects of both countries and the scientific and technical interchange between professionals. Dr. House, who is chair of the scientific committee, says he is delighted that 11 speakers from Canada will participate.

Dr. House will give the initial presentation at the opening session. Other speaker will include Dr. James Rourke, Memorial’s dean of Medicine; Richard Alverez, president and CEO of Canada Health Infoway; Steve O’Reilly, CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information; Heather Tulk, vice-president, broadband and marketing, Aliant; Dr. Kara Laing, assistant professor of Medicine and director of Medical Oncology in the H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Foundation; Patricia Dwyer, associate director of the Telehealth and Education Technology Research Agency (TETRA) and associate investigator in the Newfoundland and Labrador Teleoncology Program.

Dr. Ed Brown, executive director, North Network, will make a presentation from Toronto. Memorial University president Dr. Axel Meisen, who is a strong supporter of international collaboration, will also bring greetings by video conference. Using the same technology there will be presentations by Dr. Muhammad Zulfiqar, a medical oncologist at the H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre, and by Fran Kirby, manager of the Office of Professional Development at Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine.

The organizers of the conference consider this the start of a continuing international relationship with the sharing of ideas and expertise across the spectrum of information, communication technologies (ICTs) for health and education, supporting researchers, developers and users.

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