Representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Junta de Andalucía have presented the global results of the European Telemedicine Project 'Palante' in the European Health Forum of Gastein, the most important annual event of health policy in the European Union (EU),that is celebrated every year in this Austrian city.
This project, in which the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) coordinates the pilot of one of the nine developed in different regions of the European Union, has been chosen as a model to reflect that in the new European health model it is being promoted every timeMore than patients assume control of their own health care, in collaboration with the health professional, through the use of new technologies and tools, the Board has specified in a note.
The conclusions of this project highlight that in Europe the empowerment of the patient - its involvement and participation - is already a reality and that depends mainly on the confidence in the system and its health professionals, the patient's experience when receiving health care, as well asof the ease of use and usefulness of the digital health services they use.There are also other factors that also affect this involvement such as geographical distribution, patient age, family context or employment.
The Andalusian initiative has been centered on patients with diabetes;However, the 'Palante' project has the participation of eight countries and pilots have been carried out in regions of six of them.
Each region has focused its performance on a different user profile.In the case of Spain, Andalusia are present (monitoring and online control of diabetic patients) and the Basque Country (patients with respiratory diseases and COPD).Likewise, the Italian region of Lombardy (patients with chronic heart failure), Turkey (patients with ankylosing spondylitis), the South-East Norwegian region (patients with diabetes), the stretria region in Austria (X-ray exposure) have participated (X-ray exposure) (X-ray exposure)and the Czech Republic (access to the vaccination calendar and citation through health history).
To all this are added two additional experiences: France (access of patients to the personal health folder) and Denmark (management by patients of their personal health information).The representatives of the Andalusian Ministry have been responsible for presenting the global results of these projects, in which more than 1.5 million patients have participated.
Specifically, the project led by Andalusia, which is co -financed by the Competitiveness and Innovation Program of the European Commission, has involved more than 7,000 patients with follow -up diabetes and more than 2,000 health professionals from different Andalusian centers.It pursued an exhaustive control of people with diabetes, greater communication between patient and professional, the reduction of the number of unnecessary visits to both primary care centers and hospitals, the decrease in the number of hospital income and obtaining a faster responseFrom the healthcare to the user.It also means for Andalusian public health the optimization of resources and the improvement of the quality of assistance to people with diabetes.
Patients who have participated in 'Palante' have had access to the service through 'Click Health', available in the virtual office of the website of the Ministry of Health, where they could register their capillary glycemia data, their weight,Its blood pressure and physical activity.Through this application they monitored their pharmacological treatment, obtained educational material related to diabetes and raised consultations so that the professionals of their center could answer them.All these data have remainedIntegrated in the unique digital health history of each user.
For their part, health professionals, both doctors and nurses, have carried out a personalized monitoring of diabetes patients through an computer desk icon in their workplace.From him they have been able to consult the information that patients have introduced and exchange messages with them that help them in the process of their disease.