Digital Health Connect report on telemedicine
Telemedicine was at the heart of the ninth Digital Health Connect conference, held on October 27, 2021 at the Clinique romande de réadaptation in Sion.
Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, remote medicine has really taken off, accompanied by hopes and fears, and international expersts have shared their views.
Around 180 online and face-to-face participants took part in Digital Health Connect, organized by Swiss Digital Health, The Ark Foundation and HES-SO Valais/Wallis.
Dr. Galia Barkai, CEO of Sheba Beyond, Israel's first virtual hospital, kicked off the conference with a plea for telemedicine. In her view, technology will always be ahead of the healthcare system and the human being. But we shouldn't be afraid of losing the human touch, so now is the time to put telemedicine on an equal footing with traditional medicine.
Katarzyna Wac, Director of the QoL Lab, based at the University of Geneva and the University of Copenhagen, is also aware of the need for technology and people to cohabit. In her view, the miniaturization of these devices opens up great opportunities, but the human factor remains a key element, particularly in terms of educating people in their use. That's why the approach must be above allhuman-centered to achieve convincing results.
The conference continued with a remote presentation by Dr Yves Nordmann, a Swiss-Israeli doctor and serial entrepreneur in the field of digital health. In his view, a hybrid approach is needed in the field of telemedicine, with a mix of human intervention and technology, as well as bringing together different applications on a single platform, and doing so in partnership with healthcare partners. He concludes by pointing out that the current trend is towards electronic patient records, over which patients must retain control. This is the next evolution to be achieved, even if Big Techs are already partly on the case.
Four discussion tables took place during the afternoon:
The first of these, moderated by Pascal Tritz, brought together experts from the Hôpital du Valais(Dr. Grégoire Gex), the Centre médico-social des coteaux du soleil(Arnaud Zufferey) and the Hôpital Fribourgeois (Christophe Bosteels), in connection with hospital care at home since the coronavirus crisis. While patients are willing to share their data as long as the tools are entrusted to healthcare professionals, doctors share concerns about liability, given that with technology, they potentially have access to all patient data.
The second, moderated by Bertrand Léger of the Clinique romande de réadaptation, welcomed Lucas Malcotti, world fencing champion, Michael Duc (Swiss Olympic Medical Center) and Philipp Caretta (Force8). The speakers asked whether it was possible to do all the monitoring and coaching of athletes remotely, and the unanimous opinion was that we should keep to a hybrid format and not concentrate on a single platform.
The third round table, moderated by Dawn Haughton-Bonine, Communications Manager at Debiopharm, focused on new digital therapies. According to Lauri Sippola, CEO of Kaiku Health, higher survival rates and improved quality of life are the consequence of using digital therapies. But, according to Dr. Galia Barkai of Sheba Beyond, it's crucial that the technical infrastructure and administration are well thought out to reduce the workload for doctors.
The final round table, on the theme of remote modification of health behaviors, was moderated by Michael Schumacher, professor at HES-SO Valais/Wallis. The MindMaze company took part, as did Zurich University Hospital and the AISLab at HES-SO Valais/Wallis.
To conclude, Karin Cooke, Managing Director of Kaiser Permanente, presented her company's innovative model. Patients purchase their health insurance from the company and have access to the company's own medical centers, and everything is also accessible via a mobile app. She argues that virtual connections serve to guide patients to the best care for them, the demand is there and patients find it very convenient.
Source : The Ark
