System of telemedicine services designed for family doctors' practices.
The main goal of the most European telemedicine programs is to increase access to emergency and primary care; however, telemedicine presents both profound opportunities and challenges to general practice/family medicine. The aim of this project is to develop and demonstrate a regional primary care teleconsulting system in Poland linking an academic family medicine center and 10 family doctors' practices (both urban and rural) within a range of 100-200 km, serving a local population of 25,000 individuals. It is designed to support real-time consultations among health care providers via a computer network, provide secure access to multimedia patient records, and facilitate an innovative home monitoring and remote care from doctors to their patients. The entire process (planned for 3 years) includes: selecting the best technology (i.e., teletransmission system, communication protocols, etc.) and equipment; preparing the assumptions and conditions for formats and transmission rates; analysis of the existing techniques of compression and preparing own specific solution; finding an optimal infrastructure (i.e., equipment and communication configuration); implementing the system; evaluation of the medical, economic, organizational, and sociological aspects of the system (i.e., accessibility to primary health care, cost feasibility and cost-effectiveness of telemedicine services, quality of care assessment, etc.). The project offers the potential to improve: access to high-quality primary health care; the patient-physician bond and the attending physician's level of confidence; education of family doctors; use of expensive resources; and a convenient mode of delivering medical services to the patient.
Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Postgraduate Medical Education, Medical Academy of Wroclaw, Poland.Maria.9392993@pharmanet.com.pl
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Bujnowska-Fedak
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Staniszewski
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Steciwko
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Puchala
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000458:organization & administration; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011044:Poland; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration*