Matteo BALLESIO, ASL TO3, Italy
Marco DALMASSO, Servizio Sovrazonale di Epidemiologia, ASL TO3, Italy
Sylvie OCCELLI, IRES - Istituto Ricerche Socio Economiche del Piemonte, Italy
Bibiana SCELFO, Servizio Sovrazonale di Epidemiologia, ASL TO3, Italy
A few studies about the deployment of telemedicine services have been lately made in the Piedmont region. The latest one, in particular, suggested that to maximize the benefits of the new services, their design should recognise issues of access to healthcare.
In this direction, an empirical analysis of the 2019 health mobility to specialist care was carried out. which used data extracted from the Regional Healthcare Information System. It enquired to which extent telemedicine services might overcome the distance gap between patients and healthcare services, under certain hypotheses about the spatial distribution of patients and services in the local areas.
While applying the same type of exploratory approach, the present study makes a few steps forward and refine the analysis for the Local Health Units (LHUs). It is organized in four parts.
At first, medical specialties and the type of examinations which can be delivered digitally were identified through their codification into the regional information systems.
Next, a set of hypotheses are formulated regarding the patients eligible to be treated with telemedicine, their digital literacy and the quality of broadband connections in the residential areas, Results of their impact on the LHU’s health mobility are discussed in term of percentage reductions for patients accessing the services, journeys, and travelled distances.
Building upon the results of a 2020 regional survey, an overview of the telemedicine services deployed by the different LHUs, including a qualitative assessment is presented. This provides further ground to the formulation of the hypotheses to be tested in the exploratory analysis. Finally, a few more spatially detailed insights are given for the TO3 LHU, where telemedicine can be regarded as relatively more advanced. Three main domains are considered (hardware, software and human involvement) which are also part of the TO3 LHU’s plan to deliver telemedicine services.
Mots clés : telemedicine|health-mobility|SP indicators|exploratory approach|local area healthcare delivery
A103860SO