The 3rd Health Challenges Congress (HCC) took place at the International Congress Centre in Katowice on 8–10 March 2018. Decision-makers and experts discussed initial assessments of the hospital network and proposed changes, the National Health Fund’s future, public health’s economic impact, rising healthcare costs, the organisation of care, innovation and medical technology development.
The panel ‘Telemedicine — a trend or a necessity?’ included Associate Professor Piotr H. Skarżyński, MD, PhD, a board member of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth. Other participants were Jacek Czapla, Medical Director of Centrum Zdrowia w Mikołowie; Maciej Miłkowski, Deputy President for Finance of the National Health Fund; Wojciech Szefke, President of the medical industry employers’ organisation Technomed; Mateusz Tajstra, Third Department and Clinical Division of Cardiology, Department of Heart and Vascular Diseases, Silesian Centre for Heart Diseases in Zabrze; and Krystian Wita, acting Deputy Director for Treatment at University Hospital No. 7 of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, the Prof. Leszek Giec Upper Silesian Medical Centre. Krzysztof Milewski, Director General of the American Heart of Poland Research and Development Centre, moderated.
Prof. Piotr Skarżyński discussed developing a telemedicine model combining remote diagnosis, treatment and telerehabilitation. Screening was its first element, conducted through projects involving KRUS and municipal or county authorities. Depending on age groups, between half a million and 700,000 people in Poland have now been examined. Telemedicine enables pilot studies and diagnostic support for young doctors and researchers even at distant centres outside Poland. Research projects operate in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Central Asian countries, where specialists in this field are scarce.
The Professor stressed that patients most need to know the next steps. A patient with a positive screening result should know where to go and what follows. There is nothing worse than telling a child’s mother that something is wrong without explaining what to do. Patients must know where and why they should seek treatment, and a medical facility must be ready to receive them.
Poland now has 20 centres connected in a growing telemedicine network, the only system of its kind in this medical field. Hearing implant users can attend cooperating university or private facilities nationwide for follow-up and processor checks. The team builds trust and gives patients a choice between a centre closer to home and Kajetany.
Telerehabilitation is another important element, especially for the youngest patients, whose progress can be monitored continuously. A supervising specialist can immediately correct activities if something is not working. Diagnostic work at branches and centres in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is monitored, with results analysed and discussed online by specialists in Poland.
Asked whether ENT solutions are standard worldwide or whether Poland leads this field, the Professor explained that some examinations are standard procedures, while others were developed locally with Polish research institutions. For central auditory processing disorders, where a child hears well but has sensory integration problems, the team developed its own norms and adapted the therapy’s diagnostic aspects. These are original contributions at a global level.