As a company with an IT focus on healthcare what are the current problems and how do you think we can contribute for higher level of health cares?
Many studies show that we in Bulgaria are one of the so-called ageing societies, which in turn results in more people with chronic health problems, who need constant care.
The European Commission describes the ageing as one of the biggest social and economic challenges of the 21st century, which the European societies are facing.
The expectations are that in 2060 in our country the population will be about 5 million residents, of which about 3 million with be of working age, and about 700 thousand will be over 80 years of age with high percentage of disabilities, chronic diseases and need of social care.
All this is a precondition for the constantly increasing demand for medical services and leads to increasing the costs for healthcare. Bulgaria already suffers the insufficiency of qualified medical specialists, especially in the small town and villages.
How would you explain the remote monitoring and is it possible to happen in Bulgaria?
The fast development of information and communication technologies and the digital electronics, may provide solutions for these problems and support the health care significantly. These are methods and possibilities that are recognized by the governments and administrations in Europe and globally.
For many years all around the world much effort is involved, including the high technology companies, for developing models, systems, smart devices, which will monitor the health of people in need and “help” if this is required – the so-called "telecare".
In practice, Telecare is a complex of high technology devices and supporting technologies for professional health cares for help, monitoring and care for people from distance. Telecare includes various services such as communication, monitoring, diagnostics and training.
The benefits of this approach, from medical point of view, are undoubted, however, we cannot ignore the social effect of the telemedicine, namely the possibility for the elderly and ill people to keep their independence, to improve their quality of life, and to live independently for longer time. The studies show that hospitalization and death rate could be reduced using the telemonitoring devices.
The remote health services are developing not only in favour of the people being in risk and needing monitoring, but also in support to the people who take care for them – family members and specialists.
The remote care has three components: 1. Using special devices the patient makes measurements and provides data about his health condition. 2. The information is transferred securely to the medical expert, as there is an option for alert if some of the indicators are out of the reference values. 3. The medical expert applies his clinic skills and assessment in order to provide personalized feedback for the patient, if necessary.
Could we, here in Bulgaria, also meet the changing needs and demands of the healthcare and services for the people?
Manu health institutions and municipalities have ideas and specific projects in the field of the telemedicine. The wide range of opportunities covers provision of specialized devices for examining health indicators, mobile cabinets, video communication and remote consultations.
There are devices on the market that allow you to measure your blood sugar, blood pressure, pulse, saturation, one-channel ECG, but the essential part for providing the monitoring is connecting these end devices into one communication system, that is reliable and secure enough, and provides effective bidirectional transfer of information. The system need to have a simple interface and:
- Corresponds to the software packs of medical equipment for the purposes of data exchange;
- Have option for connecting with the programs used by the GPs;
- Have indications about the condition of the medical equipment;
- Allow transfer of examinations results and reference values;
- Have option for data storing in off-line mode in case of lack of Internet connection and their further synchronization with the communication computer after connection restoration;
- Alarms when the examination results are out of the specified limits.
As a company with traditions and its own solutions in the field of healthcare, Kontrax AD works in this sphere for years now and have its own platform that provides patient-doctor communication.
Telemedicine solutions developed by Kontrax include:
- Mobile personal devices that allow examinations of health indicators: ECG, temperature, blood sugar, blood pressure, pulse, saturation.
- Specialized software platform for transfer and analysis of examination results/ indicators.
- Mobile office equipped with medical equipment for examinations by specialists.
In its capacity of system integrator in the field of the leading information and communication technologies Kontrax integrates the operation of all system components in order to achieve efficient final result. And the benefits from the solutions already implemented in Bulgaria are noted and highly appreciated by the people.
Many of the Bulgarian municipalities have at least 10 settlements – small towns and villages, where many elderly people are living, having health problems, chronic diseases and therefore, need of their condition monitoring. It is difficult for the GPs who service these town and villages, to provide daily care and monitoring. The use of personal assistants for people with serious illness cannot also provide the necessary health consultation and care. That is why, the idea about a solution in the field of the telemedicine, is very appropriate and a few years go received European financing.
This article is prepared by KONTRAX experts, a company with 27-year experience in the services related to the system integration in the health sector, and the biggest provider of health and information systems in Bulgaria. The systems are open and allow integration with other systems that meet the world standard for exchange of medical information, HL7. For details please visit: www.kontrax.bg
