Regional telemedicine center

Вопрос практики - How do we improve our healthcare system’s efficiency using telemedicine?

Первый регион реализации Kaluga Region

Telemedicine
Implementation period: 1 month
Подготовительный этап
от 1 мес.

Practice description

Tasks:

  • Improving healthcare services accessibility and provision time for all the populace covered, including people living in remote areas and those with mobility issues (making healthcare services equally accessible).

  • Improving primary healthcare efficiency.

  • Cutting down workload for the doctors receiving patients personally, by replacing follow-up appointments with remote consultations.

«Doctor Nearby» telemedicine platform is a service organizing remote doctor’s appointments for patients using telemedicine technologies. Over 5.8 million clients are connected to the platform, getting 1,500 — 2,000 appointments a day.

The platform has been certified by FSTEK as conforming to the information security requirements, can be integrated with other information systems, and offers customizable solutions.



System functions:

  • Consultations in audio, video and text chat formats.

  • Transfer of medical documents between the parties.

  • Doctor scheduling and patient routing management.

  • Getting a second opinion and other functions.


The basic service includes 3 modules:

  1. Administrator’s module

  • Doctor profile setup

  • Schedule management

  • View patient data

  • Booking online appointment

  • Appointment report download

  • Viewing past appointments data

  1. Doctor’s module

  • Simple and intuitive interface

  • Patient interaction via text chat, video or voice call

  • Generating opinions and referrals using EDS

  • Viewing other doctors’ opinions

  • Booking online appointments for patients

  • Planning follow-up calls after appointments

  • Flexible notice settings

  1. Patient’s module

  • Apps for IOS and Android

  • Viewing doctors’ questionnaires, ratings and schedules

  • Personal account containing appointment history and planned appointments

  • Appointment with a specialist or an emergency visit to the doctor on shift

  • Medical documents upload and storage (tests and examinations results)

  • Viewing appointments and recommendations history

  • Appointment results evaluation

  • Patients and their medical documents database

In order to use the service, a patient needs:

  • Get a face-to-face initial appointment with a general practitioner

  • Download «Doctor Nearby Telemed» from Арр Store or Google Play

  • Sign in through the Public Services portal

  • Contact the attending physician or a physician on duty using the app

Platform capabilities:

  1. Connecting doctors in regional healthcare institutions to run telemedicine appointments with their patients.

  2. Involving «Doctor Nearby» doctors in providing telemedicine consultations in the region.

  3. Artificial intelligence based solutions (bots) for medical background collection and for monitoring patients with chronic conditions.

  4. Setting up a telemedicine center in the region (can include the above modules fully or in part).



Pilot implementation of the project in the region can follow several scenarios:

  1. Signing up 5-10 doctors in a regional healthcare institution to the platform so they can provide telemedicine consultations for their patients for 1-2 months. The regional Healthcare Ministry decides on the telemedicine consultations setup, contents and number.

  2. Providing telemedicine consultations through «Doctor Nearby» digital platform using «Doctor Nearby» staff doctors in the «doctor-patient» and «doctor-doctor-patient» formats. Service duration: 1-2 months. Both general practitioners and specialist doctors can be involved.

Practice result

Pilot projects have been implemented in Kaluga, Sakhalin and Ivanovo regions.

Since March 2021, remote consultations have been included in the health insurance system of the Lipetsk region. Patients of 29 polyclinics and hospitals in the region can receive remote medical advice. The allocated volume is 25 thousand consultations.

The formats of launching a telemedicine center in Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and Leningrad Regions are being discussed.


Effects:

  • Reducing queues and increasing the availability of primary care (the possibility of getting advice within 10 minutes and the possibility of direct routing to narrow specialists).

  • Increasing the efficiency of the doctor’s working time by up to 30%.

  • Reducing the number of emergency hospitalizations and ambulance calls for dispensary groups, improving the transparency and quality of observations.

Implementation cost: Up to 500 thousand ₽

Implementation stages

1 month

Подготовительный этап

Срок: 1. Комментарий:

Roadmap for telemedicine introduction in the region:

1.     Defining the goals and objectives of the telemedicine introduction in the region.

2.     Preparation and signing of a MoU regarding the telemedicine introduction in the region between the Ministry of Health and Doctor Nearby.

3.     Making a decision on the creation of a Unified Telemedicine Center or the introduction of telemedicine in medical institutions (all or individually selected ones).

4.      DеСрокining the stages of telemedicine deployment in the region.

5.     Implementation of the Pilot Project on the telemedicine introduction in the course of providing medical care to the population.

5.1.  Coordination of the Pilot Project scope (participating medical institutions, list of physicians, duration of the Pilot, type, and number of consultations).

5.2.  Elaboration and approval of the TM services rendering process.

5.3.  Coordination of the Pilot Project KPIs and reporting (composition, frequency of review).

5.4.  Publication of the necessary orders and instructions for medical institutions.

5.5.  DеСрокining the sources of funding for the Pilot.

5.6.  Training of physicians to use the platform and conduct telemedicine consultations.

5.7.  Direct provision of telemedicine consultations.

5.8.  Summarizing the Pilot Project results.

6.     Developing and signing the order of the Ministry of Health of the region, regulating the procedure for the provision of telemedicine services under the physician-patient scheme.

7.     Inclusion of a tariff for the provision of medical services using telemedicine technologies in the TFOMI tariff agreement, allocation of the assistance scope.

8.     Adjustment of the telemedicine implementation plan in the region, taking into account the Pilot Project results.

9.     Deployment of a full-scale telemedicine implementation pursuant to the target scenario and with targeted coverage.