*By Rebecca Engmann

For nearly a decade, WeAidU has developed and refined high-tech solutions that bring the foremost European medical expertise to Scandinavian doctors at the click of a button. With WeAidU's latest innovation, the Cardiac Remote Expert (CARE), a downloadable computer program offers local doctors the opportunity to "cyber-conference" with a diagnostic support database within seconds - refining cardiac diagnoses and saving lives.

WeAidU marketing director Fredrik Lindell explained that the company's diagnostic aid was the fruit of eight years' research in heart disease on a worldwide scale.

WeAidU has kept its focus on heart disease, the number one global killer, which claims some 5.5 million lives annually - three times as many as die of AIDS. The technology prevents heart attacks according to two clinical models: heart ischemia, which indicates a high probability of heart defect, and heart infarct, which indicates a heart already damaged.

"Often, when a doctor is in doubt about the diagnosis of a heart patient, he or she will send that patient to the operating room, preferring to err on the side of caution - that's known as oversensitive diagnosis. Our software is based on the expertise of Dr. Richard S. Underwood of the Royal Brompton Academy, which means that CARE can put Europe's leading cardiac expert at your service within 10 seconds, and offer diagnostic support for borderline cases," Lindell explained.

3-D and bull's-eye graphics

CARE is a step-by-step computer program that offers doctors the chance to enter key patient data for a single diagnosis or several diagnoses simultaneously. In under a minute's time, the program produces diagnostic guidance with 3-D and bull's-eye graphics - and even offers a feedback function, for doctors who may differ with the digital "second opinion." In return, doctors and patients alike garner valuable peace of mind on tricky diagnoses, while hospitals cut costs, mortality rates, and patient turnaround time. WeAidU has already explored similar diagnostic solutions for Alzheimer's disease and dementia, lung and kidney ailments, and ECG interpretation at hospitals and health care facilities in the Øresund Region.

Given the often-treacherous world of hospital liability and malpractice, Lindell explained that CARE wouldn't take the place of physician accountability in patient care.

"Between now and 2011 or 2012, we're going to see a lot more of this kind of (diagnostic) software in place, with computer-based aids expanding due to patient care optimization and administrative need. As a rule, physicians are always responsible for their final decisions regarding patient care - what CARE offers is decision-support software, rather than pure diagnosis. And it's a fantastic decision support."

Burgeoning Medicon Valley

Lindell noted that WeAidU's prime location, in the heart of the burgeoning Medicon Valley, had been an immense help in the company's development phase, from forging early contact with area mathematicians and physicians, to research opportunities with Scandian hospitals. On the strength of top-notch technology and the Medicon Valley's reputation as a cutting-edge biotech center, WeAidU has expanded its brain trust to include experts in 14 countries - rivalling America's own San Francisco-Berkeley-Stanford triangle in biotech savvy.

In the next decade, Fredrik Lindell says diagnostic support technology will come even closer to home, with increasingly advanced programs based at the point-of-care level.

"We're already seeing these tendencies in blood analyses performed in the comfort of the patient's own home. In the future, if you feel ill, you can log on to the web, answer a series of questions, and receive centralized, home-based intensive care at a fraction of the cost - it won't take the place of doctors, but nurses may be another story…" said Lindell.

This article was originally published by Øresund IT Magasine (Spring 2003).

*Rebecca Engmann is an American journalist living in Copenhagen.

More information:  WeAidU