TIMTEM project: our experience in a remote area.
We report our experience, begun in 1998 on a small island in the Dodecanese area of Greece, which has been called TIMTEM. The aim of this project was to improve care for people living on islands, creating a model exportable to other rural areas. The operative setting of the TIMTEM project is the island of Tilos (Greece); local authorities take part in it under the guidance of the only physician available on the island. The University of Pisa-Italy (Department of Surgery, Post-graduate School of Emergency Surgery) manages the scientific and organizational part of the project. Tilos is a rocky Mediterranean island with a surface of 64 km(2) and a population of about 500 inhabitants (with a peak of 2,000 tourists in July and August). A physician and a nurse are responsible for the only medical care on the island, and they also dispense drugs. The project was implemented on three phases. During the first phase, a campaign was held to encourage the population to cooperate with clinical data collection; a temporary telemedicine station was established, and a complete screening of the population was performed. The second phase was focused on the application of telesonography. During the third phase, a telematic and/or direct participation for reference hospital physicians (Regional Medical Society-Dodecanese) and for Greek physicians was planned. As well, a fully equipped central telemedicine station in the reference hospital was established under the local jurisdiction. The results of the third phase are still incomplete; the data presented here are preliminary. But all indicators show that the project is exportable to remote areas elsewhere.
Zocco
G
G
Department of Surgery, S Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy. g.zocco@dc.med.unipi.it
Goletti
O
O
Lippolis
P V
PV
Lorenzetti
L
L
Musco
B
B
Cavina
E
E
Tsolakidis
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration*