Organisational Impact and Exploitation of the Results of an Italian Research Project for E-Health and Medical Training

The paper describes the final results and the organisational impact of the HERMES project: an on-line integrated web-based platform to provide multimedia services in tele-medicine and tele-education fields. The project is part of a European Space Agency programme to promote the market of broadband satellite services and the role of satellite systems in the tele-education and tele-medicine domains. The project implemented a pilot to demonstrate the effectiveness of the overall system (application and communications platforms), and to promote the use in real scenarios of innovative telemedicine and teleeducation via satellite services in the Italian healthcare system. After five years, the project concluded its trial phase and the results of such a trial have been analyzed. The high level of investment in the initial phase suggested a very accurate market assessment with several pilot demonstrations. This approach is allowing to minimize the risks connected with the further significant service provisions and is now orienting the market deployment.