Dreampark, a provider of IPTV Middleware in the European market, together with its project collaborators, was awarded the Healthcare IT Prize for "Best Idea." The prize was presented at the Annual General Meeting and national conference of the Swedish Society of Medicine. In collaboration with other participants in the project, Dreampark has developed an IPTV solution that enables patients to communicate with their local care center via the "Nurse (Syster) Gudrun" interactive television channel.

The idea behind the solution is to free patients from the need to travel to the care center for a personal consultation. Via an IPTV set top box (a normal television with a broadband connection) equipped with a web camera, people receiving care can see both themselves and the person to whom they are talking. Care center personnel can also see the patient and control and zoom in with the camera to get an impression of the patient's condition. Another benefit of the solution is that information about the patient's journal, consultation bookings, medicines, etcetera is available during the conversation.

Now that's our idea of an innovative use for IPTV.

"It is incredibly stimulating to be involved in the renewal work taking place in the healthcare sector," says Per Skyttvall, President of Dreampark. "Starting from the basic concept underlying the project, we have jointly created a new type of care channel for normal television that is controlled by using an ordinary remote control, like our other applications."

"The project is an excellent example proving that IPTV is a technology with applications for useful services that can provide a better and more secure life while simultaneously offering substantial cost savings," says Henrik Lindmark, Communications Director at Dreampark.

Blekinge County Council played an active role in the project by defining the requirement specifications, and Dreampark contributed with its communications platform. The next stage of the project will be a full-scale trial in which a tenant-owners' housing cooperative is linked up with Tullgården Care Center in Karlskrona.