News

20/05/2016

Tele-healthcare technologies in pediatric phthisiology in the Prmorski Region were presented at the INFOSIBERIA 2016 conference

Tele-healthcare technologies in pediatric phthisiology in the Prmorski Region were presented at the INFOSIBERIA 2016 conference

Reporting: Yevgueniya Ershova

At the largest regional IT conference for the Siberia and Far East regions, the Primorski Medical Information and Analytics Center presented a project which is being successfully implemented and which concerns development of tele-healthcare network for the region's pediatric anti-tuberculosis facilities.

The Third INFOSIBERIA Inter-Regional Conference was traditionally held in Novosibirsk in May and gathered over 100 experts, specialists, developers and consumers of information services from 22 regions of Russia. This time, the event's principal topic was chosen to be development of IT infrastructure in medicine.

The report on The Usage of Tele-healthcare Technologies in Pediatric Phthisiology of the Primorski Region was presented in the working group of 'Industry-Specific Regional and Inter-Regional Solutions. Integration and Priority Development Technology. Implementation experience and Efficiency Analysis'. Joint work of IT and medical specialists was presented by Yevgueniya Ershova (Economist of the Primorski Regional Medical Information and Analytics Center, State Autonomous Healthcare Institution).

The project's urgency can be hardly overestimated. Epidemiological situation related to tuberculosis in children and teenagers is extremely grave in the region: tuberculosis incidence rate is 2.5 times average incidence for Russia as a whole, while in several municipal settlements it is 5 times as much. At the same time, the regions lack phthisiologists, while not all families can afford visiting Vladivostok for a consultation (sometimes meaning a trip of over 700 km). The Primorski Pediatric Regional Clinical Tuberculosis Hospital (PPRCTH, State Budgetary Healthcare Institution) began to actively look for solutions to provide children with accessible specialized medical assistance and ensure maximum availability of timely diagnostics. Implementation of the tele-healthcare technology became a solution for the problem.

Project development commenced in June 2015. On the basis of the PPRCTH, a specialized Regional Tele-healthcare Consulting Center was created. As of today, 9 municipal and district hospitals of the region are connected to this center. Data exchange is done via a specialized software of YSAR+ (Automated System of Remote Tele-healthcare Consultations, (ASRTC) for the Primorski Region), implemented within the framework of execution of the Healthcare Modernization Program in 2011-2013. The ASRTC is a 100% Russian product and is included in the Unified Registry of Russian Software.

The system allows to transmit (via secured communication channels provided by the Primorski Regional Medical Information and Analytics Center) data of computer tomography, digital X-Ray images, laboratory test results, and extracts from health records. At the same time, consulting doctors (X-Ray specialists, phthisiologists) can perform detailed analysis of primary-source visual information, up to the level of viewing 3D models of lungs, lymph nodes, etc. On the basis of document evaluation, opinions of consulting councils are prepared, which are sent to medical organizations that have requested consultations. High level of consulting doctors' professional skills, in combination with the usage of advanced technologies, allows timely formulation of children's diagnoses and commencement of treatment for tuberculosis cases.

Besides, as was noted by Yuri Selyutin (Director of the PPRCTH, State Budgetary Healthcare Institution), usage of the system provides monetary advantages due to minimization of people's expenses for visiting the center, elimination of repeated performance of medical examinations, lowering of expenses for treatment of untimely detected diseases, or usage of in-patient admission facilities for diagnostic purposes. There is one more important advantage: joint work of consultants and local specialists contributes to an increase in the level of professional knowledge on the part of primary-assistance doctors, as well as to pediatricians' clear understanding of diagnostics algorithms for bronchopulmonary diseases.

In just one year of the project's implementation, pediatric phthisiologists conducted over 700 tele-healthcare consultations. Abnormalities were detected in 52% of cases, out of which tuberculosis was found in 70% of patients. Before the end of the current year, it is planned to connect 5 more district medical institutions to the Automated System of Remote Tele-healthcare Consultations for pediatric phthisiology purposes, these institutions equipped with computer tomographs or digital photofluorographic units. In 2017, it is planned that the system should cover all of the region's districts.

On the whole, in the opinion of Igor Selyutin, usage of the tele-healthcare technology allowed the region's pediatric phthisiology to reach a new level, to increase timeliness and precision of diagnostics, to ensure possibility of provision of quality medical assistance in remote districts. Development of the Automated System of Remote Tele-healthcare Consultations and increase in its coverage is one of the urgent tasks of the Primorski Region healthcare.

Official source of information