Health diagnosis improvement in remote community health centers through telemedicine

Abstract

Introduction: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) applied to the healthcare offer multiple advantages for diagnostic services and remote consultations. However, evidence on the diagnosis improvement in rural communities is limited. The usability of telemedicine to improve the coverage of diagnostic services in Paraguay was investigated. Methods: The goal of this descriptive study was to evaluate whether a telemedicine system implemented in remote public regional and district hospitals in Paraguay over a period of 3 years from 2014 to 2016 could facilitate the universal coverage of diagnostic services in rural communities. Results: In the study period, 182,406 remote diagnoses from 54 hospitals through a telemedicine system were performed. Of the total, 37.31% (68,085) corresponded to tomography, 62.00% (113,059) to electrocardiogram (ECG), 0.68% (1243) to electroencephalogram (EEG), and 0.01% (19) to ultrasound (US). Tomography was performed in 12 hospitals: 54.4% corresponded to head injuries, 13.8% to chest, and the rest to other anatomical regions. ECG was carried out in 52 hospitals; and in 62.1% of the cases, the results were normal; 12.5% unspecified arrhythmias; and 10.4% sinus bradycardia among the most frequent pathologies. EEG diagnosis showed history of seizure (54.3%), evolutionary control (14.0%), and headache (11.5%) among the most frequent diagnoses. All 19 US studies corresponded to prenatal control. Conclusion: These results showed that telemedicine may enhance the diagnostic services in rural communities, thus reducing the number of referrals and optimizing human and financial resources.