VP21 Telemedicine As A Tool For Public Health Planning

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

The telediagnostic systems can achieve relevant epidemiological information from local community needs to global countrywide opportunities. In this context the telemedicine applications should be directed to gain the prevalence of pathologies towards developing better equity in the provision of services (1), and greater concern for the effectiveness and usefulness of health technologies in remote locations without access to specialists (2). This study, has evaluated the results of a telemedicine system in remote public regional and district hospitals in Paraguay (3), in order to show the epidemiological trends in communities of a low income country.

METHODS:

This prospective study used the results of telemedicine for diagnosis in remote regional and district hospitals to evaluate a as tool to determine the prevalence of pathologies countrywide over three years (2014-16). For these purposes, type and frequency of pathology diagnosed was determined. Sampling was non-probabilistic of convenience.

RESULTS:

A total of 182,406 telediagnoses were performed in 54 hospitals. The electrocardiography (ECG) diagnosis performed in the 52 hospitals were normal (62.1 percent), unspecified arrhythmias (12.5 percent), sinus bradycardia (10.4 percent), left ventricular hypertrophy (4.1 percent), sinus tachycardia (4.4 percent), right bundle branch block (3.5 percent), ischemia (1.4 percent), atrial fibrillation (1.0 percent) and left bundle branch block (0.6 percent). Teletomography was performed in twelve hospitals, where 54.4 percent corresponded to skull as a consequence of accidents (motorcycles) and cerebrovascular diseases, 13.8 percent chest, 6.2 percent dorsal spine, 5.4 percent abdominal and the rest the other anatomical regions. Regarding electroencephalography (EEG), antecedents of seizure (54.3 percent), evolutionary control (14.0 percent), headache (11.5 percent), cognitive impairment (2.0 percent), attention deficit in children (learning) (2.0 percent), brain death (1.0 percent), abnormal movements (0.8 percent), and sleep disturbances (0.3 percent) were diagnosed. The nineteen ultrasound studies corresponded to prenatal controls.

CONCLUSIONS:

Despite the results of the telediagnosis implemented in the public health system to determine the prevalence of pathologies countrywide, a widespread use-assessment should be analyzed before deciding a large diffusion as a tool for public health planning.