HOW MUCH do patients trust digital medicine? Not very much. There is still a lot of distrust. Many of them even consider it a second-rate medicine, and look with suspicion both at the most innovative digital health technologies and at the way in which their clinical data are used, which they fear could be used for purposes other than those stated. Yet the benefits that telemedicine and other digital health solutions bring to the healthcare system are obvious. First of all, in the clinical setting, because by effectively eliminating the movements of both staff and patients, they make medical services more efficient. Then, in access to care, because they guarantee equity and contrast to inequalities throughout the national territory. And, finally, in dealing with emergencies, enabling doctors and health workers to monitor the health of patients and ensure the timeliness of interventions without overloading the system. What digital medicine and telemedicine presuppose is a different model of organization of health services, which patients and doctors must approach in a new way, totally different from what they were used to, as in the fourth and final episode of the second edition of the talk Roche Now argue. Giorgio CasatiGeneral Manager ASL Roma 2, e Francesco GabbrielliDirector of the ISS National Center for Telemedicine.
Telemedicine: how patient services will change
Earn the trust of patients
When it comes to digital medicine, often the patient’s perception is that the remote doctor does not treat him with due attention. “It is necessary to spread the awareness that doctors treat even without having the patient in front of them – says Gabbrielli – as long as the systems are well organized and the digital technologies available are distributed in a balanced way throughout the territory”.
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The goal is not to lose sight of the person and to transform the treatment plans for different pathologies into an individual path. How? “Through the modernization of current organizational models and more specialized approaches in the area based on differentiated care settings”, Casati replies: “The possibility of knowing the patient’s clinical life in an objective way – through data, diagnostic elements, pharmacological or hospital therapies that the doctor can consult directly – is the great added value of technology applied to the health system. This is combined with the opportunity to develop a more targeted diagnostic process, also possible through the study of similar cases “.
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A slow but inevitable change
The impact will be very strong and important, and will happen in a very short time. “The support of technology will make it easier and easier to manage patients at home – continues Casati – but it must be accompanied by appropriate organizational changes, otherwise it risks creating an additional element of complexity”. Telemedicine does not end only with tele-visit and teleconsultation, but above all includes the collection of clinical data of patients in a new way and the ability to organize them in digital systems capable of responding adequately to needs. “We need a sense of responsibility on the part of patients and great professionalism and attention on the part of clinicians – concludes Gabbrielli – It will not in fact be technology that will replace doctors, but doctors capable of using it will replace those who will not know how to use it”.