In a report released Thursday, the Montreal Economic Institute says several studies in the last few years have shown telemedicine can significantly reduce costs, increase health-care service efficiency and boost patients' well-being because they spend less time travelling to and from clinics and hospitals and waiting around to see a nurse or a doctor.
This isn't shockingly new information — a similar study in Ontario in 2007 showed much the same result — but the institute says booming health-care costs make getting a tech upgrade an urgent necessity.
"With a smart phone I can take a picture of a wound on my leg and send it to a doctor," said Germain Belzile, the institute's director of research. "The doctor might say, 'It looks like diabetes; go get a blood test.' Already, we've saved 12 hours of waiting in a hospital emergency waiting room."
One Quebec study, at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal in 2003 and 2004, involved 2,400 chronic lung disease outpatients. Some had a device in their homes that gauged their lung capacity, cardiac rhythm and blood pressure and sent the results automatically to the hospital over the Internet. These patients were also consulting more frequently by phone with nurses. Other patients had no such devices in their homes and received regular medical care, including short phone calls and frequent visits by nurses to patients' homes.
The savings added up to $355 per patient over six months for those with telemedicine compared to those with little or none.
The Ontario study in 2007 with 819 chronic cardiac or pulmonary patients showed a 60 per cent reduction in hospital admissions and 70 per cent fewer emergency room visits in most cases.
Karine Rivard, a spokeswoman for Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, said the government is looking at telemedicine.
"There are eight projects around Quebec right now, including one on teleconsultations between doctors and patients at the McGill University Health Centre," she said.
The emphasis is on doing follow-ups, treating wounds, and specialists looking at patients in photos or via video link-ups. Initial diagnoses are reserved for face-to-face doctors' visits, she added.
Paul Saba, a doctor at Lachine Hospital and president of the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice, said it is great to have a phone consult, "but there still has to be someone on the other side" to answer, referring to Quebec's shortage of doctors and nurses.
Technology "does help, but it can't replace a doctor's human touch," Saba added.
"If I see a photo of a person's swollen foot, that's one thing. But if I'm there in person, I can see his environment, check his fridge to see what he's eating. I can see if he has an infection, a heart condition or is depressed."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Max Harrold
Quelle/Source: The Vancouver Sun, 167.09.2010
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