The Telehealth program of the state of Amazonas managed to serve more than 6,500 people in 28 municipalities since November 2020.
In June 2021, the Amazonas telehealth program reached remote medical care coverage in 16 municipalities, nine months later there are 28 municipalities. In fact, until July 2021, the program implemented in November 2020, registered just over 1,700 services provided, however, in August 2021, 12 more cities were added to the program, which caused a significant increase in these figures.
On March 9, the State Government announced that they registered more than 6,500 attentions made since the beginning of the program. “The expansion of access to health services in the interior is a determination of Governor Wilson Lima. With teleconsultations, patients can consult a specialist professional and have their demand attended to within the same municipality”, explained the Secretary of Health of Amazonas, Anoar Samad.
This medical teleconsultation program offers care in seven medical specialties, such as cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, pediatric neurology, all with more than a thousand visits; in addition to rheumatology, endocrinology and pulmonology with more than 1,500 visits altogether.
The importance of this strategy is reflected in the number of teleconsultations that are requested in the municipality of Lábrea, 702 kilometers from the state capital. This town heads the list with the highest demand for teleconsultations. In this municipality, the project was implemented in March 2021, and after almost a year they have made more than 1,400 queries.
“Some municipalities have difficulties to access even to carry out the service. For this reason, in addition to the fiber optic expansion, we are formalizing an alliance to strengthen this strategic component of digital health so that we can work in the future with the Telehealth Centers of the University of the State of Amazonas (UEA), located in the 62 municipalities of the state and in five indigenous communities, with a lot of effort, overcoming all the daily challenges”, concluded the secretary.