Lapão Luís Velez, Correia Artur
WHO Collaborating Center for Health Workforce Policy and Planning. Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical - Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.
Ministry of Health, Cape Verde.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;209:51-7.
This paper addresses the role of international telemedicine services in supporting the evacuation procedures from Cape Verde to Portugal, enabling better quality and cost reductions in the management of the global health system. The Cape Verde, as other African countries, health system lacks many medical specialists, like pediatric cardiologists, neurosurgery, etc. In this study, tele-cardiology shows good results as diagnostic support to the evacuation decision. Telemedicine services show benefits while monitoring patients in post-evacuation, helping to address the lack of responsive care in some specialties whose actual use will help save resources both in provision and in management of the evacuation procedures. Additionally, with tele-cardiology collaborative service many evacuations can be avoided whereas many cases will be treated and followed locally in Cape Verde with remote technical support from Portugal. This international telemedicine service enabled more efficient evacuations, by reducing expenses in travel and housing, and therefore contributed to the health system's improvement. This study provides some evidence of how important telemedicine really is to cope with both the geography and the shortage of physicians.
本文探讨了国际远程医疗服务在支持从佛得角到葡萄牙的撤离程序中所起的作用，有助于提高全球卫生系统管理的质量并降低成本。与其他非洲国家一样，佛得角的卫生系统缺乏许多医学专家，如儿科心脏病专家、神经外科医生等。在本研究中，远程心脏病学作为撤离决策的诊断支持显示出良好效果。远程医疗服务在撤离后监测患者时显示出益处，有助于解决某些专科缺乏响应性护理的问题，其实际应用将有助于在撤离程序的提供和管理方面节省资源。此外，通过远程心脏病学协作服务，可以避免许多撤离情况，而许多病例将在葡萄牙的远程技术支持下在佛得角当地得到治疗和随访。这种国际远程医疗服务通过减少旅行和住房费用实现了更高效的撤离，因此有助于改善卫生系统。这项研究提供了一些证据，证明远程医疗在应对地理因素和医生短缺方面的重要性。
