Osakidetza, the Basque Health Service, has designed a new computer system that will allow cancer sufferers to communicate with their doctors in real time, remind them when they should take their medication and transmit their symptoms to health centres. All this can be done from their own computer via the Osakidetza website .

The Deputy Minister of the Health Department, Jesús María Fernández, and the Head of the Oncology Service at the Donostia complex, Josep Piera, presented this pioneering initiative, which will come into operation in autumn at the Hospital Donostia in San Sebastián. Once its effects and results have been evaluated, Osakidetza will be able to study extending it to the rest of the Basque public health network.

This system will take advantage of two computer tools called Oncomed and Oncoweb to carry out continuous monitoring of the evolution of cancer patients. Oncomed technology combines multiple functions and enables patients to access Internet via computer, PDA or mobile telephone, as well as to set up videoconferences with healthcare professionals, access medical contents related with their illness or consult about their own treatments. All this is done by means of this new system that allows the patient to make direct contact with hospital staff.