The patient enters the office. He goes to the screen. He puts his SIP number. And he connects with the doctor, who treats him remotely. First there is a videoconference with the toilet, who will ask you to take your blood pressure, for example. The data will reach the doctor’s application who, remotely, will be able to assess the patient’s condition. Everything will be between the tablet and him.
It is the operation, in broad strokes, of the tool developed by Valencian researchers from the Valencian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (VRAIN) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and will be applied in a few weeks in clinics in the Els Ports region, in Castellon.
It is especially focused on streamlining health care for patients in rural areas, but “it is not about eliminating face-to-face attendance, but about having a first screening”, explains the main researcher of this project, Juan Miguel Alberola, who explains that with this telematic screening consultations that are not urgent can be better attended. “We want people who work and live in rural areas to have a better quality service,” argues the professional.
For his part, the doctor from Vallibona and Castell de Cabres, Nel lo Monfort, coordinator of the Morella Health Center and principal investigator of the project on behalf of Fisabio, affirms that “the device can improve the accessibility and equity of the public health system of the most remote rural population, as well as prioritizing travel by professionals or patients when necessary. On the other hand, the maintenance of resources and services in rural areas reverses territorial inequity and health inequalities, important causes of depopulation”.
Proposing this project in the Castellón region, one of the most depopulated, is linked to the effects of the pandemic. “The people who live there feel insecure, because when something happens to them they have to go to Morella urgently. And this is going to go a little further than the phone call that has been established after Covid ”, Alberola points out.
Let us remember that the pandemic forced it to be established and that this type of consultation has remained in the Valencian health system as an alternative option to traveling to the health center. It is eligible even from the GVA Sanitat app.
In the VRAIN institute they say that there are two applications, one that the doctor has in his office, and a second that is in an auxiliary center, where it is not necessary for there to be a doctor, but a technician who can help the patient, by less to know how to handle the tablet at the beginning of the pilot test.
The devices connect using Bluetooth Low Energy, a wireless personal area network technology intended for healthcare and other applications. The project has an initial budget for its preparatory action of 5,000 euros, which could be increased to 15,000 euros in its subsequent application.
The data obtained through the glucometer, the scale or the thermometer will be connected in the Cloud and will communicate with the doctor’s application. “In the future it would not even be necessary for the patient to be in an auxiliary center, in a public space to which the patient had access would be enough,” adds Alberola.
These days, the team led by Alberola is recruiting participants from various towns, and they hope to have a meeting with the Ministry of Health soon to explain how the experience can be extended to other areas of the Valencian territory. The researcher explains that they have maintained contact with health software development companies interested in the tool, an option that they do not rule out knowing the different rhythms that the Administration and the company have when incorporating new features.
