The European neurological network

Sleep disorders, headache and epilepsy are chronic neurological disorders with a high prevalence in the general population. These disorders require intensive diagnosis and chronic treatment. To improve knowledge of general practitioners and to enable remote consultations by expert centers to support community hospitals a European neurological network was set up. A multimedia database of patient records is the common platform for the different tasks in this network. As biosignals play a major role in these disorders, the database consists of digital recordings of EEG and sleep beside video, graphical and textual information. Three interactive tutorials with different levels of expertise are produced for laymen, physicians in training and experts in neurology. Expert systems will help to assess symptoms and will suggest diagnoses of disorders according to international classifications. The first network consists of 34 sites in 11 European countries and proved the value of telemedicine for this data intensive field of medicine. The network is validated by physicians not involved in the initial network.