The Region of Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, is located in the south of Chile, it is the least populated region in the country and also the third largest, so providing specialized medical care is a major challenge.
The Aysén Health Service Network has implemented telemedicine tools, however, training staff in its extensive territory has been one of the most complicated tasks.
Jenny Obando, from Hospital Digital, one of the reference projects in Digital Health and telehealth in Chile, explained that "people are used to face-to-face care, but when we start showing the benefits of this platform, which avoids unnecessary transfers and improves waiting times, users began to request it and we managed to get doctors to see it as a powerful tool to give their patients a quick resolution”.
Despite challenges in staff training, more than the 93% are now trained and ready to work with telemedicine tools. In this way, starting in January 2022, more people in the region will be able to receive specialized medical care through telemedicine. The Aysén Health Service Network has specialists such as dermatologists, nephrologists, geriatricians and diabetologists, among others.
“I believe that one of the advantages of the platform is its friendliness, ease and speed of use, which has allowed our professionals to quickly adapt and thus bring the specialties closer to the most distant locations in the region, avoiding in many cases the transfer unnecessary number of patients to our reference center, which is the Coihaique Regional Hospital”, explained Gabriel Burgos, director of the Aysén Health Service.
The Digital Hospital and telemedicine have benefited the adoption of remote care, thanks to its reliability, security and speed, explained Dr. David Córdova, deputy medical director of Cochrane Hospital. "It brings us, and particularly our users, many advantages from the health field, so for us this work has brought us only positive experiences," he concluded.
Dr. María José Letelier, head of the Department of Digital Health, explained that technologies allow training and providing professional support to medical personnel, and thanks to this work they have managed to deliver more than 7 ml 500 care in the Aysén region. "We hope that more Health Services continue to integrate and adopt the digital tools that our Department offers for the benefit of all users of the public health network," he explained.
