Isolation and loss. These are some of the feelings caused by the loss of contact with the health system experienced by patients over the last few months; feelings that unfortunately persist even today because, despite everything, it is still difficult to orient oneself in these moments of uncertainty and the still lively fear of contracting COVID-19. The picture of the situation comes from two studies just presented: a quantitative one, developed by the GIMBE Foundation (Italian Group for Evidence-Based Medicine) which estimates a decrease in hospitalizations of 1.3 million in 2020, and a qualitative one conducted by ELMA Research describing the feelings of Italian patients.
Both researches were conducted as part of the awareness campaign “My health can’t wait”, Promoted by Johnson & Johnson Medical Italia with the aim of networking with the actors of the system to accompany citizens to resume their treatment path, with confidence and safety. A real necessity, as shown by the numbers collected by the Gimbe Foundation: in addition to the missed hospitalizations, 144.5 million fewer outpatient specialist services were registered in 2020 compared to 2019. The most significant share concerns laboratory tests (62.6% of total less services), followed by diagnostics (13.9%), visits (12.9%) and finally the rehabilitation area (5.8%) and the therapeutic area (4.9%).
“For us at this moment it is vital to relaunch the treatment processes for non-Covid-19 diseases in all phases: from screening, to diagnostics, to check-ups, to surgical interventions and follow-ups”, explains Silvia De Dominicis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson Medical Italia. “As a company committed to raising standards of care and generating a positive impact on patients throughout their journey, we strongly wanted to promote a return to care awareness campaign to give concrete support to citizens.” The company’s commitment has made it possible to create the conditions for true teamwork between a large group of patient associations, scientific societies and professional organizations representing all the pathologies most affected by the pandemic: from cancers to metabolic diseases, for autoimmune and cardiac diseases.
Patient tools
“The data analyzed show that in all the Regions there has been a significant reduction in surgical interventions, especially those planned, even in areas, such as oncology, where the timeliness of the intervention is fundamental for the prognosis of patients”, comments Nino Cartabellotta , President of the GIMBE Foundation. “All the elective surgery business has been greatly sacrificed. The impact on health is likely to be significant, even if difficult to estimate, and could affect many patients ”. It is therefore necessary to run for cover and give patients practical tools to help them get back to treatment centers with confidence. This is why the campaign provides patients and their caregivers with advice to return to planning checkups, screenings, surgeries and therapies in complete safety. On website dedicated you will find “questions and answers” on the safety of hospitals, checklists to make the most of telemedicine and to be able to orientate yourself in the resumption of care paths with the suggestions of scientific societies and patient associations, thanks also to more information about the new methods of interaction offered by Digital Health. And then again video-interviews with experts to understand in a clear and practical way, pathology by pathology, the importance of not postponing or interrupting treatments, and the opportunities available to return to take care of oneself.
The role of telemedicine
The campaign also proposes a Decalogue: ten points drawn up and shared by Scientific Societies and Patient Associations which represent recommendations to the Institutions called to define the priorities of the health system for restarting. The Decalogue contains short and long-term indications based on the principle of a new healthcare system built around the needs of patients, thanks also to digital technologies. In fact, all the actors involved considered the use of Digital Health as a tool to create a new health model as fundamental, as also underlined by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which indicates the activation of telemedicine services among the strategic points to be financed. in order to redesign assistance by focusing on the territory. “The pandemic has brought to light the urgency to redefine the concept of care around the needs of patients and the need to optimize the resources of the health system to improve standards of care and treat more citizens. Together we reflected on digital healthcare, as an opportunity to imagine new health centers, including virtual ones, and as a starting point for leveraging data and artificial intelligence in order to ensure therapeutic appropriateness and fairness of treatment ”, concludes Silvia De Dominicis.
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