Communication infrastructure inaContact Center forHomeCare Monitoring ofChronic Disease Patients N.Maglaveras', G.Gogoul, I.Chouvardal, V.Koutkias', I.Lekkal, G.Giaglis', D.

TheCitizen Health System(CHS) isa European Commission (EC)funded project inthefield ofIST forHealth. Itsmaingoalistodevelop ageneric contact center which inits pilot stage canbeusedin themonitoring, treatment andmanagement of chronically ill patients athomeinGreece, Spain and Germany. Suchcontact centers, which canuseany typeofcommunication technology, andcanprovide timely andpreventive prompting tothepatients are envisaged inthefuture toevolve intowell-being contact centers providing services toallcitizens. In this paper, wepresent thestructure ofsuchageneric contactcenterand in particular the telecommunication infrastructure, thecommunication protocols andprocedures, andfinally theeducational modules that areintegrated into this contact center. Wediscuss theprocedures followed fortwotarget groups ofpatients wheretworandomized control clinical trials areunderway,namelydiabetic patients withobesity problems, andcongestive heart failure patients. We present examples ofthe communication meansbetween thecontact center medical personnel andthese patients, andelaborate ontheeducational issues involved.