MEDICA DEEP DIVE: Telemedicine: remote treatment improves care
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MEDICA DEEP DIVE: Telemedicine: how remote treatment can improve care

Image: Woman is wearing a ring-shaped wearable that transmits data to a smartphone; Copyright: Messe Düsseldorf

Telemedicine is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare system. Hospitals and other medical facilities have to make their processes increasingly efficient in order to ensure good care and reduce costs at the same time. In addition, in some regions only limited medical care is available, so patients need an alternative to direct contact with a doctor.

The Corona pandemic has given telemedicine applications a major boost. Doctors' offices and hospitals were confronted with a large number of COVID-19 patients. Here, telemedicine has helped maintain medical care while minimizing in-person contacts.

In the MEDICA DEEP DIVE on 03 November 2024, we looked at the state of telemedicine today.

Speakers in our MEDICA DEEP DIVE

Image: Smiling woman with long brown hair, glasses, white blouse and dark jacket - Lea Schomacher; Copyright: private

Lea Schomacher, E-Health Consultant at ZTG Center for Telematics and Telemedicine GmbH (German: Zentrum für Telematik und Telemedizin GmbH)

Lea Schomacher is an e-health consultant at the ZTG Centre for Telematics and Telemedicine GmbH. The centre is a vendor-independent and neutral competence centre for the digitization of the healthcare system with a strong expertise in telematics and telemedicine applications.

She is therefore aware of the problems facing telemedicine in Germany: "The German healthcare system is complex, the implementation of (digital) innovations rather challenging and time-consuming."
However, she is also aware of the benefits of such systems, such as telemonitoring: “Telemonitoring is a field of telemedicine with an increasing interest. It enables continued care which is especially important for chronically ill patients, to detect exacerbations as early as possible." That is why Schomacher thinks that we need a seamless and comprehensive integration of face-to-face care and telemedicine.

Image: Smiling man with short black hair, beard, glasses and a dark suit - Dr. Daniel Dumitrescu; Copyright: private

Dr. Daniel Dumitrescu, Chief resident, Clinic for general and interventional cardiology/angiology;
Institute for Applied Telemedicine (Institut für Angewandte Telemedizin (IFAT)); Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia (Herz- und Diabeteszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen (HDZ.NRW))

Dr Daniel Dumitrescu is a senior physician at the Clinic for General and Interventional Cardiology/Angiology; Institute for Applied Telemedicine (IFAT), Heart and Diabetes Centre North Rhine-Westphalia (HDZ.NRW). Telemedicine is already being used successfully in the Virtual Clinic NRW. It is used in two ways: firstly, as communication between doctors. And secondly, as communication between doctors and the patients themselves. Telemonitoring is also used here to help patients in the best possible way: "We are currently using telemonitoring for crisis management. We are trying to prevent patients from having another decompensated heart failure.

Daniel Dumitrescu sees a major problem in the fact that there is currently no funding for telemedicine approaches to health management. This means that the doctor sets treatment goals that the patient must follow at home until the condition worsens. "Such a concept would be extremely interesting for chronic heart diseases, as it is usually incurable and patients would be stable over a longer period of time".

Image: Woman with long blond hair and a black blazer - Birgit Stabenau; Copyright: private

Birgit Stabenau, Business Architect Health IT at Philips GmbH

Birgit Stabenau works as Business Architect Health IT at Philips GmbH, which is known to most people for their devices The companyis also active in IT, which now accounts for 20 percent of their annual turnover.

For them, one of the most important points is "telecooperation", which means that resources can be distributed wisely. For example, another hospital in the network can provide a different opinion, or employees can carry out tasks from home. "We have a skills shortage in the healthcare sector. We can address this by enabling people to work from home.”

For Birgit Stabenau, there are two major problems associated with telemedicine that need to be solved: "How is telemedicine funded and how is patient data protected? IT must be protected at all times."

MEDICA DEEP DIVE is now available as video-on-demand

You can watch our MEDICA DEEP DIVE "Telemedicine: how remote treatment can improve care" as video-on-demand here.

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