TeleMedicine International

Telemedicine in Italy: an overview on laws and guidelines

Angelica Giambelluca — 2023-01-10

Although telemedicine has been known since 1970, in Italy it has never been considered a priority in the healthcare system until the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In a couple of years, from 2020 to 2022, we assisted to a dramatic increase in the interest for telemedicine at all institutional levels and to a tremendous amount of guidelines and national laws that tried to set a precise framework for the correct implementation of this remote healthcare assistance. In this article, we reported the most important laws and guidelines for telemedicine in Italy.

The development of a new tool useful to control and limit the spread of pathologies using drug dispensation data

Felice Simiele — 2023-12-27

The literature reports several studies to improve adherence to therapy through the development of new technologies. However, a system which promptly displays the trend of a disease has never been reported. We have created a new tool that can immediately identify the development of a disease and the high-risk areas. During the COVID pandemic, we understood the importance of monitoring the trend of pathology in real-time, on a map. Through a software named Qlik Sense, we identified the areas with the greatest distribution of anticoagulant drugs. The software geolocated the pharmacies and, when dispensing the drugs, it created a bright spot on the map of the Abruzzo region, Italy, with an intensity proportional to the number of patients who received the drug for the first time. In this study, we were able to visualize immediately the presence of comorbidities that could worsen the health of patients. The tool created identifies the predominance of a pathology in order to establish correct health policies, and, in the future, it could allow clinicians to monitor patient therapy.

Early detection of general surgery complications using remote patient monitoring: a life saved

Salvatore Capotosto — 2023-09-06

A rare postoperative complication was detected in a 65-year-old male after abnormalities were identified through a newly implemented Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program at Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH). After the RPM alerted the patient’s attending surgeon of abnormal vital signs, the patient was urged to visit the SBUH’s Emergency Department, where the patient presented severely ill, tachycardic, with dry mucous membranes as well as right lower quadrant pain without rebound 12 days postinterval laparoscopic appendectomy. Laboratory results demonstrated high alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphate, and elevated white blood cell count. Upon imaging the patient was found to have a large ill-defined hypodense multilobulated lesion within the right lobe of the liver supporting a diagnosis of pyogenic liver abscess. The patient was admitted to the hospital and given IV broad spectrum antibiotics, fluids, and pain relief. The patient then underwent ultrasound-guided hepatic abscess drain placement, showing significant improvements within the following days of hospitalization. By enabling the use of RPM in general surgery, telemedicine may enhance the care of patients at risk for surgical complications and save lives.