Untitled Document (Fred Andrade)

News:

08/06/2005 - Three more Health Centres will use the Telemedicine System.

A From next week on, the health centres of the Leblon, Céu Azul and Nova York(Venda Nova) neighbourhoods will benefit from the Telemedicine system. The project is from the City Hall of Belo Horizonte, Federal University of Minas Gerais and the GVC (Group of Civil Volunteers) of Bologna, Italy, financed by the @LIS line from the European Union.

Telemedicine is a virtual consultation system, with a direct connection to the Clínicas Hospital of the UFMG, through computers linked with webcams.
The system, besides being simple and efficient, allows professionals in the health centres to exchange information and to discuss diagnosed cases with doctors from the Clínicas Hospital in "real" time. They also share medical records, X-rays and digital examinations of patients.

The main objective behind the project is to have a second medical opinion regarding more relevant cases and to avoid sending patients unnecessarily to specialised doctors, having them treated inside the health centres.

Since the project's implementation, in March 2004, in the 14 health centres of the Western Region of the city, around 75% of the cases debated via TeleMedicine remained to be treated inside the health centres, 25% resulted in further consultations and only 5% of cases resulted in immediate care.
In the present time, around 70 health professionals take part in the project, more than 20 of them being specialised clinical and surgical doctors.

The Municipal Health Secretary Helvécio Magalhães Júnior intends to extend the TeleMedicine system to all the health centres of Belo Horizonte.
Mr. Helvécio Magalhães Júnior was in Helsinki, Finland, last week to present to the European Union the improvements of Belo Horizonte's health system using TeleMedicine and search for technical and financial co-operation from European countries for the expansion of the project to the other parts of the city.