VATAM: developing consensus in validation of health telematics applications.

VATAM (Validation of Telematics Applications in Medicine) is an EU supported project in the Health care sector of the Telematics Application Programme. Its objective is to assist other health telematics projects by providing a platform for discussion on validation, eventually resulting in 'guidelines for validation of telematics applications in medicine'. The VATAM work can be subdivided into three phases: the inventory phase (1996) in which information is collected on validation approaches in the Telematics Application Programme, previous efforts and expertise. The dissemination phase (1997) will be used to extend and adapt the framework developed in the inventory phase, through cooperation with other projects The experiences phase (1998) in which the projects are actually applying validation, will be used by VATAM to validate the VATAM methodology. VATAM has finished the inventory phase successfully and is now working on the dissemination phase by--among others--establishing contacts with other projects, and providing information on the inventory through the World Wide Web (URL: http:(/)/www-vatam.unimaas.nl). This paper discusses the approach adopted and the proposed VATAM framework to structure the large variety of validation approaches.