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Telemedicine will change hospitals.
Broadband networks have made telemedicine possible, which will change the way hospitals operate. It will be the standard in practices of rural doctors, small medical centres and hospitals, as well as in monitoring patients at home.
The standardisation of broadband landline and mobile telecommunication networks as well as internet has made telemedicine possible. This form of medical care was conceived in the early 1970s to provide information to isolated towns and villages and, since then, its development has run parallel to technological advances.
Now that connectivity and accessibility are no longer an obstacle, research is focusing on a new generation of software applications capable of meeting the big challenges of healthcare. Governments are establishing the bases for introducing electronic medicine. President Obama has put forward a programme to introduce eHealth in the United States. The European Commission has called on Member States to intensify co-ordinated action according to its communiqué, Action Plan for Telemedicine.
First steps in Spain
Nearly three-quarters of Spanish hospital have set in motion telemedicine pilot projects, and more than 60% have introduced one of these systems in their normal operation. However, there is still some way to go before telemedicine becomes the standard form of the patient-doctor relationship, and before doctors will work together from different parts of the country.
One of the main obstacles to overcome is the digitalisation of all the medical files and records of every hospital and primary care centre. Apart from the huge nature of the task, digitalising all this data clashes with the treatment of medical information and with the problem of uploading them onto a national health network, in light of the sensitive nature of the data. A change of mentality is also needed.
The autonomous communities have set in motion initiatives to introduce basic services, such as electronic medical records, healthcare identity cards with a chip and electronic medical prescriptions, which are already beginning to be a reality in the basic health system. The rest of the healthcare tasks, such as notifications, appointment management and prevention programmes are also being computerised.
Empty waiting rooms
The expansion of telemedicine will change the way hospitals operate. Operations without hospitalisation will make up 80% of all operations, since they will be less invasive, and patients who now remain hospitalised will be able to be monitored at home. Telematic supervision of chronic patients, such as those suffering from heart disease, will reduce emergency hospitalisation.
Visits to hospitals will be confined to people with serious diseases. Remote consultations with rural doctors and small medical centres will be the norm, something that is already happening in Scandinavian countries. Furthermore, telemedicine will reduce the number visits by sick persons to doctors, including to the family doctor or specialist.
In fact, the number of regular visits by persons suffering from such dieases as diabetes is already beginning to go down because the technological advances have made it possible for them to monitor their diseases from home. Medical contact via videoconference will be the norm.
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Published in Health and Wellbeing by Susana Blázquez on 05/07/2010
This article has been read 1278 .
