Telemedicine solutions have become extremely popular in the last two years, being adopted mainly to overcome the limitations and risks specific to the pandemic. Moreover, medical institutions realized that telemedicine helps them to improve the quality of medical act by increasing the staff’s efficiency and reducing their workload, through the possibility of taking proactive measures, reducing costs, but also expanding the coverage area of services to social categories and disadvantaged areas, etc.
These benefits have also been confirmed by Romanian hospitals and clinic networks – public and private -, where telemedicine solutions are being tested and used on an increasingly large scale.
European funds for telemedicine
One recent example is the Mioveni Municipal Hospital – one of the few Romanian medical institutions built in recent years with funds from the local budget and European funding programs -, where all five wards benefit from state-of-the-art audio-video communication devices. The hospital-wide video conferencing system allows medical staff to collaborate and see patients in the hospital, without having to travel to the site, while also facilitating the consultation of other specialists in the country or even abroad. In addition, the video monitorization solution enables real-time monitoring of each hospitalized patient, thus facilitating proactive medical decision-making as well as rapid interventions.
The videoconference and telemedicine system at the Mioveni Hospital was extensively presented on Digi24 – video below:
Telemedicine initiatives, however, are starting to have more and more consistent support from the central authorities. In September, the Government approved the draft of the Decision for the implementation of the methodological rules’ approval provisions OUG no. 196/2020 for the amendment and completion of Law no. 95/2006 on health reform. The project establishes the medical specialties and the list of telemedicine services, as well as the clauses of organization, operation, and the methods of providing this type of services.
Also, in early October, the Ministry of Health announced the kick-off of a market study to identify the necessary technologies for implementing a national telemedicine system and mobile patient monitoring systems, the investment being part of Component C7 (Digitalization) of PNRR – I.3 . The eHealth and telemedicine system – and benefits from a budget of 100 million euros.
Local examples of good practice in the field of telemedicine
However, local telemedicine initiatives do not date only from the pandemic period – Datanet Systems has several telemedicine projects implemented before the outbreak of the pandemic, which generated consistent benefits both before and during the health crisis, as well as today. Here are two relevant examples:
Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children „Marie Sklodowska Curie“
The telemedicine solution designed and implemented by Datanet at the “M.S. Curie” Hospital from Bucharest, exclusively with Cisco audio-video equipment and technologies, such as:
- The video-monitorization system that records 24/7 the critical patients;
- The telepresence system that allows doctors and medical specialists to be contacted from outside the hospital, whether they are in the country or abroad.
The solution allows doctors to intervene and supervise the medical act remotely, having real-time access to the patient’s data, collected from monitoring devices, as well as from various medical radiology, ultrasound, etc. equipment. Doctors can access information on their mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) from anywhere using an encrypted connection. Also, the recordings of the video-monitorization system can be viewed for analysis, being archived in the hospital’s storage system.
The solution includes, apart from the equipment installed in the hospital rooms, a telepresence device that can move autonomously around the perimeter of the intensive care unit and with which audio-video transmissions can be made, as well as connecting to medical equipment for transmission, secure, of patient data.
The main benefits obtained by “M.S. Curie” Hospital, following the implementation of the telemedicine solution, consist of:
- Improving the efficiency and proactivity of the medical act based on the information provided in real-time by the solution;
• Increasing the intervention’s speed with a direct effect in decreasing morbidity and mortality;
• Streamlining the activity of the medical staff by simplifying routine operations, facilitating the exchange of information, investigating incidents, and taking measures to prevent them.
In addition, the relatives of hospitalized patients also benefit from the solution, being able to securely access the video surveillance system online, at predetermined time intervals, to see their children during their hospitalization.
Municipal Emergency Clinical Hospital Timişoara
In Timișoara, Datanet specialists designed and delivered a full video collaboration solution based on Cisco technology, intended to make the multidisciplinary oncology team more efficient. The solution is designed to be simply and quickly accessed both on office video terminals installed in the hospital, as well as from any PC, phone, or tablet – directly from the browser or by installing the dedicated Webex client – thus meeting the needs of mobility of the medical staff. So, the solution is accessible both inside and outside the hospital, easily enabling the extension of multidisciplinary teams by inviting other specialists through a simple email.
Complementarily, the solution delivered by Datanet allows each clinical case addressed by the hospital’s medical teams to be associated with an “electronic file” that contains the respective patient’s data, which can be securely accessed by the team’s members. They can securely share any category of information, regardless of support (imaging, diagnosis, therapies, recovery, etc.), large documents can be consulted, edited and transmitted easily.
By having this telemedicine solution, designed and implemented by Datanet, Timișoara Municipal Hospital obtained:
- Improving the quality of the medical act by reducing the required time for the diagnosis process and identification of the optimal treatment scheme;
- Exploiting opportunities to organize ad-hoc meetings to evaluate several cases;
- Increasing the number of monthly meetings of the multidisciplinary team, as well as the easy co-optation of new members within the working groups.
The solution is also designed to natively ensure the GDPR compliance requirements, assuring the traceability of medical data and the history of each case discussed within the team, as well as the encryption and security of the information used.
Telemedicine with Cisco and Datanet Systems
Datanet Systems has solid experience in developing and implementing telemedicine solutions and being familiar with the specific challenges of the hospital environment. Thus, we are the main local partner of Cisco, one of the most important providers of telemedicine solutions globally. The skills and expertise accumulated in the many implementation processes enable us to efficiently translate medical requirements into customized technological solutions, based on Cisco technology and adapted to the needs of each medical unit and specialty.
For more technical or commercial information about Cisco solutions and the services provided by the Datanet Systems team, contact us at sales@datanets.ro sau accesați:
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