One month ago, the Interamerican Bank of Development (IADB) pointed out that telemedicine has a unique opportunity. At the end of the same month, on May 28, TrendTIC reported that the hospitals of Angol and Victoria launched an online telemedicine system connected to the German Clinic of Santiago, thanks to the agreement signed by this institution with Desafío Levantemos Chile. Also, 10 modular medical monitors will be delivered, 2,000 personal protective equipment for health personnel, and 2,500 PCR samples taken.
The objective of this alliance called “Your Health is Our Challenge”, in coordination with the Araucanía Norte Health Service, is to help decongest the non-surgical waiting lists in that region, especially for non-COVID pathologies that are lagging. The operations consist of telemedicine sessions that will allow specialists at the German Clinic of Santiago to attend to patients in the specialty of endocrinology, among others. This initiative will benefit more than 100 people from the Malleco province.
These innovative operations consider a prior review of the clinical record of each patient by the doctors, followed by the teleconsultation sessions, and consider the possibility of prescribing medications, exams and giving indications.
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“It is an opportunity to collaborate with a problem that worries the entire medical community: the increase in waiting lists as an undesired consequence of the pandemic,” explained Dr. Jorge Roque, Deputy Medical Director of the German Clinic. “We bring the experience and knowledge of Clínica Alemana and its professionals and thanks to technology we can take this help to different sectors, especially La Araucanía, which has had to face a very complex situation.”
The director (s) of the Araucanía Norte Health Service, Alejandro Manríquez pointed out that “as a service we value each one of the initiatives that the Levantemos Chile Challenge has supported in this health service, especially as regards care today Due to medical remote assistance, which was being done some time ago, today with the pandemic where physical contact is limited, it has become more relevant. We are talking that there are more than 100 services of different strategies, starting with endocrinology in the first instance and that it will come to benefit the patient by accessing a specialist in the area who will be physically in Santiago but will virtually attend to him in Victoria ”
For Desafío Levantemos Chile, this coordinated work between both sectors allows us to deliver concrete solutions to the crisis that the country is experiencing today. “Together with the German Clinic, we are very happy for this project that seeks to strengthen the specialty consultations that the health service is currently limited to solve because of COVID. This public-private alliance will allow increasing and solving the health care of patients with chronic diseases, as well as solving complex cases of vulnerable people who were on the waiting list and who will now be able to better face this Pandemic and the winter campaign. ”Explained Camilo Rozas, leader of the foundation’s Health area.
It is not the first time that both institutions have worked in coordination to collaborate with the health system. In 2019, Desafío and Clínica Alemana de Santiago carried out two operations in the Maule Region, one of otorhinolaryngology and the other of trauma in Curicó, benefiting nearly 2,000 patients.