Health and wellness | Telemedicine and "Little Mirrors"

Technological development has modified medical care by incorporating new resources, which must be evaluated. One is telemedicine, of which there are trials that demonstrate health, social and economic benefits?

There is currently public recognition that the use of information and communication technology is a potential resource for achieving the radical transformation required by the world’s health systems, as well as facilitating the preparation of health care services for patients. Epidemiological challenges in the future and unresolved problems. But is it a priority?

An institution in Sonora recently reported a shortfall of at least 500 specialist physicians, and we’re seeing understaffing in hospitals and stratospheric debt at institutions like Isssteson. Support is needed for professionals located in communities with limited access to specialized and continuing training services because many of them, most of whom are medical trainees, have been abandoned to their fate in remote rural communities.

The increased accessibility of communities with limited access to specialized care services can be supported by telemedicine, however, the creation of specialized resources in rural areas is complicated by low productivity and low population density, indicating insecurity.

Currently in Mexico, various government health services have launched initiatives aimed at developing tele-consultation services aimed at the most vulnerable population, and they have learned from these experiences that it is always necessary to take into account the real conditions of the population, health professionals or technicians. They are located in the mentioned communities.

Although it was true that there was technology to solve connectivity problems from these locations to hospitals and specialist centers, it presented the challenge of properly designing solutions that support solving their local health problems. It is not about being fashionable, on the contrary, it is about the rational use of health, human and technological resources. Developing national telemedicine programs requires not only a capital investment, but primarily an investment of time for its proper planning and organization.

If results are measured, it takes time to evaluate them. There are some initiatives in Mexico that consider most aspects required to implement the telemedicine program, so the development of these services in an appropriate and orderly manner in our country is still in the process of being developed.

Recently a deputy in Sonora took to the stage to talk about this issue justifying its implementation due to the current pandemic, it would seem a good purpose but with so many needs in the Sonoran residents, it seems that they would like to “sell us little mirrors”.

In order to implement telemedicine, the difficulty of calculating cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and statistical studies should be discussed, since the objectives of the social project cannot be expressed in monetary units. What is the cost of putting the Internet in the previous six-year program called: “Connected Mexico”? Public institutions such as hospitals and schools will theoretically have free internet; Do you know some institutions that do not have the Internet? How much did it cost? turned?

The topic of telemedicine has a good purpose, it is certainly a course that I do not doubt will be implemented in our country in the future, but at the moment there are many other priorities in the field of health, so that the deputies become a “duck”, or not?