FRANCESCO SICURELLO-MARCO VILLA

 In the last years, particular attention has been paid to the development of telemedicine systems in order both to widen care services provision and offer better health conditions even to the citizens living in remote areas for elderly people at home. According to the WHO (Geneva, 1997), telemedicine is the supply of health services, when distance is a critical factor, so that the use of information and telecommunication technologies is necessary in order to share data useful to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases and to guarantee a consistent information to the health services providers. Telemedicine, when tele-monitoringand telecare are provided at home, allows to avoid uncomfortable trips to the hospitals with a relevant saving of time and a reduction of the health expenses.