DotHealth

ISOC Belgium initiator of the consortium with ISfTeH going for gTLD .health

Cairo – Egypt: 3 November 2008

The international Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH) and ISOC Belgium have agreed to launch a consortium to work on the elaboration of a proposal for the new gTLD run called .health. Recalling the first attempt at .health in 2000, the Board of the ISfTeH has been very enthusiastic about the project.

Why .health is needed?

The basic goal of this application is two-fold: securing the platform we all need for privacy and confidentiality in delivering our personal private medical data through he world wide web, and ensuring that reliable health information is made available to citizens as we empower them to contribute to their health and well being. We are all aware of the growing cyber criminality, and the increasing capacity to unlawfully access data. The .health TLD will offer the possibility to ensure that access is granted only to authorized medical staff (doctors, specialists, hospital staff, etc.). In addition, ownership of medical data will be certified as being delivered by corresponding certified medical staff/specialists. The success of several eHealth projects depends on the reliability of the internet community which delivers and access private personal medical information.

Actual partners in the consortium:

ISfTeH mission statement: exists to facilitate the international dissemination of knowledge and experience in Telemedicine and eHealth and to provide access to recognized experts in the field worldwide!

ISOC Belgium principal mission statement: an association, consisting of technical as well as simple citizens, promoting a stable, accessible and safe Internet for everybody. ISOC Belgium by and for the Belgian citizen, focused on “Internet for everyone”.

The consortium will start with a forum in which we expect to receive input from related constituencies and organizations in order to establish a stakeholders group directly related to the health environment. We want to first identify the needs and the challenges that the health sector wants to overcome, and these will constitute the backbone of the application for the .health bid. Besides the medical world we would encourage the participationof governmental bodies directly involved in health matters, especially in eHealth projects.

Before the end of 2008, the information gathered will be used to establish the basics of the consortium of stake holders and to finalize the concept of the proposal for the application.

Contact information:
Rudi Vansnick – tel +32 475 28 16 32
Email: rudi.vansnick@isoc.be
Present at ICANN meetings in Cairo.