Finish Novo Group will present its Atuline Virtual Hospital project at the Medica 2001 international medical device trade fair in Düsseldorf.

The service is the first virtual hospital to be registered in the European Union.

The Atuline Virtual Hospital offers online medical consultation and electronic prescriptions for both individuals’ health care providers.

In addition, the Atuline Virtual Hospital also offers an electronic patient record in the form of an eHealth Account, which can contain X-rays, digital photos and doctor’s prescriptions.

The service is open to individual users or, through a local network, it can be used by local health care providers to help them create a local patient-to-physician network and make use of the latest technology.

The Atuline service also includes an electronic prescription that can be picked up, after verification, at any pharmacy in Europe that participates in the Atuline service. The service uses a Novo developed authentication system developed for the use in Internet banking.

Atuline has been officially approved as a health care provider and its activities are monitored and supervised by the Finnish Ministry of Health. Medical experts working for the e-health service can be contacted in English, German or Finnish whenever and wherever needed.

At present Atuline’s services are being used for dietary consultation in Germany and by insurance companies in Finland. The virtual hospital is currently being used by more than 2,000 test users.