Telemedicine – How Does it Work in Practice?

Abstract

Introduction

Today telemedicine is a very popular and rapidly growing area, which allows the treatment, regardless of the distance between the patient and doctor. We present the latest research, conducted amongst polish doctors about the usefulness of telemedicine as a therapeutic tool in different medical specialties.

Objectives and aims

The aim of the study was to examine doctors’ attitude to telemedicine and usefulness of Platform ‘Moneo’ in the therapy of the areas other than psychiatry.

Methods

The first part was the polish telemedical project (grant no. POIG.01.04.00–04–219/12) conducted to assess medical Platform ‘Moneo’. It was based on a questionnaire filled by participants in scale 1 to 5. The second study based on authors’ anonymous questionnaires was distributed amongst 105 psychiatrists from Poland.

Results

Everybody noticed advantages of medical platform. The Platform's functionalities, rated as the best by healthcare directors were: educational materials, appointment and therapy planning. Managers indicated parts, which could be improved in e-prescribing system, the process of collecting information about hospitalizations and operations. Functionalities indicated by doctors as desirable to increase the utility of the platform is e-prescribing system, reporting side effects, planning visits, educational materials. In study addressed to psychiatrists, only 15% of them claimed to have an extensive knowledge on telepsychiatry, but they had confirmed the potential of telemedicine in psychiatry.

Conclusion

Telemedicine is a useful method, which can improve quality of healthcare services and make an access to it possible for some people. However, lots of improvements in telemedical services are needed to make it an efficient medical tool.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.