Zerintia Technologies, together with Vodafone and the Bages University Foundation, started a joint project to help elderly and chronically ill people with COVID-19 symptoms in the Central Catalonia area, to be attended by a remote medical service.
This area is widely dispersed geographically and has a higher rate of ageing than the Spanish average, making it one of the areas most in need of assistance in the current health emergency situation.
Through the telemedicine applications developed by Zerintia Technologies, and the connectivity provided by Vodafone, which has provided data SIM cards to the confined patients and the “Data-center” services, patients and medical staff will be able to be connected again, attending to alerts or making the scheduled visits as if they were face-to-face visits.
The Bages University Foundation, which in this project collaborates closely with the University of Newcastle (Australia), contributes all its years of experience as a reference in the university health teaching sector and the capillarity it has in the health ecosystem of Central Catalonia, coordinating the main health care centres in the territory (Althaia Foundation, Sant Andreu Salut and EBA Centelles) and taking charge of distributing the tablets to all those patients likely to need this solution.
The solution will also be useful for those doctors who, being in quarantine, cannot leave their homes, but are in perfect health to continue contributing their knowledge remotely and fighting the pandemic. Thanks to this project, they will once again be part of the medical operational team, discharging the health system, giving support and assistance to the group of displaced patients and chronically ill from their forced confinement.
This solution will be non-profit during the time that the crisis caused by the pandemic lasts, and all the participants make all our experience available to professionals and institutions that require it in order to replicate this solution in any place where it is necessary.
Telemedicine is an opportunity to maintain medical care in the current moment of confinement and fear of contagion. In Shanghai, the Xuhui Central Hospital, which has been experimenting with telemedicine since 2015, received a special license from the Chinese government in February to expand its scope. In a few weeks, internet consultations went from almost zero to more than 5,000 in the first week of March.
“For medicine, this is a long-term change”, warns Zhu Jian, a senior official of the institution, adding, “Most online consultations are not related to the coronavirus”.
From pediatrics to cardiology to dermatology, dozens of doctors take turns in cabins equipped with computers.
The advantages are numerous: less pressure for health personnel and greater efficiency, not to mention reduced waiting times for patients who are no longer obliged to travel physically to consult.
Once again the search for answers to the crisis opens up new opportunities.
