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| Telereferral for endocrinology (diabetes) |
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Patients suffering from diabetes are exposed to some particularly crippling complications such as retinopathy and diabetic foot which can lead to blindness and amputation respectively.
These patients need to be seen regularly by an endocrinologist to monitor the evolution of their disease. This type of regular consultation can be particularly inconvenient for people living in remote areas far from the nearest specialist team. On the other hand, modern technology allows to perform remotely the essential exams which are required in these cases and to transmit the information (still or animated images) through a network. Examinations for retinopathy will be still conducted in the tertiary hospital, as the equipment necessary for this exam cannot be moved.
In addition, video-conferencing can be advantageously applied to the routine monitoring of patients suffering from diabetes. Patients will have a blood test done at the GP's and receive the answer through video-conferencing at the local hospital. Before this service was put in place, the patient had to travel to the tertiary hospital to consult a specialist. Even though the consultation itself takes usually less than an hour, the patient?s commuting time back and forth to the hospital is often very significant. Therefore, through video-conferencing, both the specialist nurse at the local hospital and the patient get benefits. The patient receives a fine-tuned therapy in a far more effective way than it currently does even with frequent consultations with the specialist and this allows an immediate intervention when the glucose level reaches dangerous thresholds. The specialist nurse or the GP, on his/her hand, by participating in the consultation learns more about the treatment of diabetes and improve over the time his/her problem solution capability. |
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