Asclepieion Park of Athens [1]
A Study Commissioned by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology
Delivered on September 5, 2000-10-24
Summary
The main scope of the Study entitled ‘Asclepieion Park of Athens’ is
to contribute to the formulation of a design methodology of a modern digital
site, which could be eventually used as a prototype to design ‘Modern
Asclepieions’.
The Study covers the requirements for immediate application to the
site of the ‘Asclepieion Park of Athens’, as it was described in the
study’s open procurement.
The development of a Digital Site, requires the design and the pilot
application of an advanced telematic network of high standards, in agreement
with the European views as they are described in the Information Society
concepts. The telematic network is designed to cover the communication needs
assuming heavy loads, the co-ordination and the collaboration of all units
providing health and cultural services, to facilitate the educational services
of various levels, to cover the needs for managing the entire spectrum of the
activities to be developed inside a Modern Asclepieion and facilitate the
quality control of the services.
The University of Athens won the contract. The work started in July 1999
and was completed in 14 months, as requested.
All activities were completed as scheduled.
The design of the Telematic Network was based on requirements described
by the hospital units operated within the ‘Asclepieion Park of Athens’. The
services of Health and Culture that can be supported by the telematic network
were selected by analysing the views of a number of experts, as it was requested
by the Contract. All services were designed by a specially developed
methodology.
When the initial design of the Health Services was completed,
questionnaires were constructed and used subsequently in order to extract the
requirements of users of health services, in an effort to ascertain whether the
design was successful or not. The
results provided ample evidence for the soundness of the design.
Taking into consideration the innovative nature of the Modern
Asclepieion concepts, and the way the design of the services was
approached, the Research Team (RT) decided to make publicly available every part
of the Study as they were produced. The ‘publication’ of the reports was
made electronically at the Web pages of the Project at
http://asclepieion.mpl.uoa.gr.
The site contained additional information reflecting the progress of the entire
effort.
Independent scientists and especially physicians requested evaluation of
the designed services, seeking to reveal weak points either in the methodology
and/or the initial design of the services. This procedure was not a contractual
obligation, but it was deemed necessary in order to secure the quality of the
design. The reports were made available to the external auditors by conventional
or electronic means (via the Project’s Web pages).
Along the same lines, the Web sites of the University of Athens (www.uoa.gr)
and the Athens Medical Society (www.mednet.gr)
have published the invitation by the RT to scientists and every other interested
person to study the electronically published reports and to comment on them and
to make known thir views to the RT. The electronic publication started on
January 20 and lasted up to end of September 2000. The entire procedure of the
electronic publication of the reports did not yield the expected results form
the point of view of the number of the participated scientists.
The intermediate results of the Study, were presented in the 3rd
Workshop on ‘Modern Asclepieions: Health <-> Culture’. The aim of the
workshop was to further promote the concept of Modern Asclepieions. The Workshop
was sponsored by the Athens Medical Society and took place in Athens on May 17,
2000, in the context of the 26th Pan Hellenic Medical Conference (May
16-20, 2000). The Workshop was described by all as successful.
Both the Workshop and the electronic publication of the initial reports
of the Study revealed that no issues were raised able to indicate that a
departure from the adopted approaches and solutions were necessary.
The main results of the Study are summarised as follows:
The entire logic of the effort to design and implement health services in
the context of Culture with the support of the new telematic technologies is
demonstrated in the specific electronic pages , that were created as a
simulation of the Portal of the ‘Asclepieion Park of Athens’. The
portal contains themes of health and culture.
[1]
The ‘Asclepieion Park of Athens’ is a large space within the
urban structure of the greater Athens area, containing 7 large hospitals, 3
Ministry complexes, sports facilities, military installations and other
installations of public interest. The area is protected by Greek
Law. The Modern Asclepieion
concept aims at transforming the entire area in a site where health and
Culture can be promoted in parallel and in harmony. The model for this site
is that of an Ancient Asclepieion (cf. Greek Mythology / History).