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Telemedicine in Ukraine: the way to reallocate resources in the health care system

One of the issues considered during the meeting at the Ministry of Health of Ukraine was the state of implementation of telemedicine in Ukraine. It was stated that establishing new centers and offices to provide telemedicine services is in process.

State Clinical Research Telemedicine Center, a specialized institution for health care, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Health was created inn 2007 with the aim of rendering high-skilled assistance using modern information and telemedical technologies, their designing, approbation, implementation and development of telemedicine in Ukraine. The Center uses modern computer equipment and software (special PACS-system for archiving, transmission and processing of medical images). At the Center of servers already gained about 9 thousand medical images.

Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the UN Office in Ukraine and MTS signed a Memorandum of understanding in autumn 2009. The project is based on the use of advanced telecommunication technologies, which will assist in the development of telemedicine. Tripartite project is a non-profit, thus other companies can assist in developing of the national health system.

According to the activities approved by Ministry of Health State Clinical Research Telemedicine Center, analyzed the state of technical equipment in healthcare institutions. This analysis demonstrated that mostly in all the areas there is no special equipment and high-speed Internet access in order to organize telemedical qualified video conference.

However, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Uzhgorod Regional Hospital, Donetsk Regional Hospital and Telemedicine Center in Kyiv are connected with high-speed communication channels and equipped with modern equipment for video conferencing so far.

The issue of unified requirements for software and hardware, telemedicine consultations, video conferencing between the centers of telemedicine in health care institutions and organizations is now solving.

National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Medical Center Augsburg, National Medical University of Ukraine, medical universities in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernivtsi took part in various teleconferences in 2009, organized by Telemedicine Center.

Moreover, the creation of such network will allow to use human and material resources efficiently, to be exact to reduce paper costs, to minimize costs to the consultation organization and assistance of the specialized medical institutions for people in remote and rural areas, to optimize the number of personnel in medical institutions, to reduce the cost of preparation and training of medical specialists. Source: Press Service of Ministry of Health of Ukraine