Starting in September, people from Madrid will be able to carry out video consultations with the region’s Primary and Hospital Care doctors with the next update of the health card mobile application. In this way, the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, hopes to solve the problems derived from the workload of health professionals, although her commitment goes in the opposite direction to that of the main medical unions that have been on strike since the end of the year. November 2022.
Oblivious to the conflict, which Ayuso describes as a political strike despite the fact that in recent weeks she has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in two massive protest demonstrations, the regional president announced this Monday that starting in April the people of Madrid will have their medical history on the virtual health card and, as of September, they will be able to use this mobile application to view their medical tests with images or carry out video consultations with Primary and hospital Care, where it has already been put into practice.
“The Community of Madrid wants to take advantage of the benefits of technology to take care wherever the patient is, shorten waiting times and reduce unnecessary travel,” he has justified, quickly adding that in no case “replaces the doctor” but that “telemedicine comes to complement our health system”, he insisted.
The presentation took place at the Enfermera Isabel Zendal emergency hospital, which according to Ayuso will be the “technological heart of Madrid’s healthcare, thanks to the first digital health innovation center in Spain, developed in collaboration with Siemens”.
And these innovations are part of the Digital Health Plan of the regional government, which, endowed with 70 million euros for the next four years, will enable the people of Madrid to have their check-ups, vaccines and all the necessary care at hand throughout their lives. life with personalized service. Although the section on video consultations was already put on the table at the end of 2022, being harshly rejected by all the health professionals in the Community.
In addition, he has insisted, it will create “a true ecosystem at the service of research and life around the university, the pharmaceutical industry, ‘startups’, companies and foundations in the sector, all the experience together in unison”.
The last pillar of the Digital Health Plan is the implementation of artificial intelligence in public health, which will facilitate the work of doctors, ordering diagnostic tests based on severity and saving time for the patient.
The Infanta Leonor, Infanta Cristina, Infanta Sofía, Sureste, Henares and Tajo hospitals already use artificial intelligence in the analysis of chest films, and La Paz will do so immediately.
The Digital Health Plan will also make it possible to strengthen the Data Bank of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas), one of the largest in Europe, with clinical information from pharmacies and diagnostic tests, which will allow progress in the prevention and early detection of diseases .
