Naslov
IS of health system and telemedicine in the Republic of Croatia

Autori
Klapan, Ivica

Izvornik
European journal of medical research (0949-2321) 7 (2002); 38-39

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, kongresno priopcenje, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
IS; health system; telemedicine; Republic of Croatia

Sažetak
Medical care represents a cornerstone of the civilized society. It is usually carried through the existing network of medical institutions at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. Availability and timeliness of medical protection in remote rural areas, far from modern medical centers, significantly determine the overall health system quality. Sophisticated telemedicine systems introduce multimedia communications in medicine. Physicians are given the ability to communicate immediately with patients or colleagues at geographically dispersed locations, or within the same location, thereby sharing the important medical data in any form. Implementation of telemedicine systems is about to raise the existing medical standards significantly, in order to provide faster and more efficient medical services and to ultimately achieve a long-range cost reduction. Telemedicine systems support complete audio-visual communication facilitating fast and reliable diagnosis and therapy setting up. This is achieved by direct physician – patient communication and immediate transmission of diverse laboratory findings, x-ray, ECG, EEG, CAT, MRI and other medical data. High-quality visual contact will allow a physician/expert to examine the patient at distance, who will thus be covered by specialized medical care. This can be of great importance in emergency cases when fast and correct evaluation of the patient's condition is crucial. The use of telemedicine systems should significantly decrease the number of unnecessary engagements of expensive transport vehicles such as ship or helicopter which, due to weather conditions, may occasionally prove unfeasible. Feasibility studies of telemedicine projects accomplished worldwide have shown proportionate profitability of providing medical care through the telemedicine mode. Physicians located in remote, small medical centers will be able to contact eminent medical experts from Croatia and Europe, thus having an opportunity to improve their practical and scientific skills. This would set prerequisites for high-quality development of medical care in its entirety and consequently to stop the exodus of medicial staff from Croatia to western countries. In this aspect, telemedicine systems will considerably upgrade the overall medical service level, which will be by far more efficient and faster, and will result in great cost reduction at long run. Implementation flowchart for the segment of video communications has been worked out in accordance with defined requirements of the medical branch, from the perspective of functional characteristics that a telemedicine system has to fulfill. The plan includes analysis of the present state and proposes a phase-divided solution for the system with regard to telecommunications equipment and links, and videoconference equpiment. Telecommunications structure of the system has been defined in detail with all necessary network equipment and links. Technical characteristics and performances of videoconference equipment are also fully described. On flowchart design, special attention was paid to finding an economically acceptable solution able to support high communications standards set by a modern telemedicine system. For this reason, the initial phases of system realization have been completely based on the ISDN Service.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Kliničke medicinske znanosti, Javno zdravstvo i zdravstvena zaštita

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