Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the set of healthcare services provided remotely through the use of advanced technological systems, without the person having to physically go to treatment facilities.
Telemedicine tools therefore allow you to visit and monitor patients from home, especially fragile and chronic ones (subject to periodic checks), to guarantee closer, faster, more effective and sustainable assistance.
The strengthening of technological infrastructures and the development of the national platform for telemedicine services are financed with the funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr)
The national telemedicine platform
The national telemedicine platform, created by Agenas, serves to certify the telemedicine services provided in the individual regions and autonomous provinces according to the same technology, quality and safety standards, and to periodically evaluate the results of their use.
The function of the platform is to ensure citizens have fair and uniform access to remote assistance tools across the entire national territory, thus reducing geographical disparities.
Telemedicine services
These are the types of telemedicine services envisaged by the Pnrr, which the Regions and autonomous Provinces must be able to provide by the first half of 2024.
A televisit is a visit performed remotely using IT tools in which the doctor interacts with the patient, completes a diagnosis and prescribes medications and treatments.
Televisit can only be used when it is equivalent to a traditional outpatient visit.
The televisit cannot be a substitute for an initial medical examination (to be carried out in person).
Teleconsultation consists of the request for support via video call from one healthcare professional to another during the performance of the healthcare activity to make a decision or for the correct execution of the intervention. It can also be carried out in the presence of the patient.
Teleconsultation is a remote consultation between doctors that allows a doctor to ask one or more medical colleagues for a diagnosis or advice on the choice of therapy. It is possible in the presence of the patient.
Telecare is the remote interaction between the healthcare professional (nurse, physiotherapist, social health worker, ...) and the patient or his caregiver to provide support and health education tools for managing care needs, such as cleaning a tube for breathing or artificial nutrition, dressing a wound, moving a bedridden person.
Telemonitoring allows the detection and transmission via special devices (connected to apps) of vital parameters (heart rate and pressure, respiratory rate and oxygenation, body temperature) and the patient's clinical parameters depending on the disorder to be kept under control (such as pain, blood sugar, weight, tiredness, headache, diuresis, sensitivity in the limbs, nausea).
During telemonitoring, remote monitoring can be programmed, i.e. a moment of discussion with the doctor via telephone or video call. Remote control can be activated for patients suffering from chronic diseases (such as diabetes, cardiovascular, pneumological, rheumatological, oncological, neurological diseases).
