Decentralizing of specialist health services in Helse Nord

Part investigation on telemedical services. Status and potential of distribution in Helse Nord.

Project description

In February 2005 NST received an assignment to study "Status and potential of distribution telemedicine in Helse Nord". The study would take the modern services and describe measures for distribution in full scale. The report describes the mature services such as teleradiology, dermatology and videoconference in the mental health care. It describes conditions that inhibits distribution in full scale and measures to reduce the inhibiting factors. Use of telemedicine in daily practice has mostly been entrusted to technology interested leaders at different hospital sections and the GP offices. Today's technological solutions for messaging is easily seen as cumbersome in large parts to the professionals. This inhibits use. Videoconference is mostly used for increasing competence through use of www.helsekompetanse.no. The equipment is mostly used for administrative meetings and less to direct patient related consultations.

The NST points out that Helse Nord must focus on the following conditions to make full scale use of telemedicine in the region a reality:

1. Change in the juridical conditions for sharing patient information between NH.
2. Further development of electronic interaction services so that attachments such as multimedia and documents can be sent together with the messages.
3. Taking over the technical drift of the learning portal www.helsekompetanse.no.

Helse nord carries out systematic surveys on course and learning business that is not included in that day's solutions and integrates them into the portal.

Helse Nord initiates the task by using the portal's solutions on using the specialist training in the region.

1. Use of video conference for patient consultation in these subjects:
   1. Psychiatry (adults and children) (between hospitals/DPS and municipalities)
   2. Dermatology (between hospitals and hospitals/DPS)
   3. Cancer (between hospitals/hospitals and hospitals/municipalities)
   4. Pathology (between hospitals)
   5. Rehabilitation(between hospitals and municipalities)
   6. Cardiology(between hospitals)
   7. Child birth (between hospitals and hospitals and nurseries)

To spread the use of videoconference between municipalities and the departments at HFene, NST recommends that this is done after an escalation plan that is issued in collaboration with the departments, so that Helse Nord ensures actual use of the equipment.

Financing

The project is financed by Helse Nord and NST.