Bucharest, 30 May 2017 – Patients located in disadvantaged rural areas from Timis and Caras-Severin counties have now access to quality medical services with the help of a telemedicine solution that allows a doctor to provide remote medical consultations to patients who, for various reasons, cannot reach the hospital. The telemedicine solution has been developed by the Profilaxis Medical Help Foundation and funded by the Vodafone Romania Foundation with 420,000 lei, under the Connecting for Good program,.
In the absence of this telemedicine solution, target patients, most of whom are elderly people, should travel between 40 and 100 km to reach a hospital in Timisoara. The consultations focus on cardiology and internal medicine, specialties related to vital risks, which record the highest mortality rate in the Western part of the country. To extend the diversity of the medical act, the telemedicine solution also covers five other specialties, namely endocrinology, dermatology, ophthalmology, pulmonology and otolaryngology.
The project involves a team of specialist physicians located in the fixed station in Timisoara, and a mobile team that moves between three operating points: Ghilad and Sanpetru Mare, from Timis county, and Bocsa, from Caras-Severin county. With the use of some portable investigation equipment and an internet connection, the on-site consultation is transmitted in real time to the specialist physician in Timisoara.
Within the project, 729 patients from the two counties, some of whom had not been checked by a specialist physician for five or even ten years, benefited from 1,600 medical consultations in seven medical specialties. The example of this project has been followed by the Community Support Foundation in Bacau, which will implement a similar telemedicine solution for the patients in the rural area of the county.
The Profilaxis Medical Help Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in 1997 in Timisoara. The mission of the foundation is to increase the quality of life of children, adults and elderly people by developing medical, social and educational services. In 2017, the foundation marks 20 years of continuous activity for more than 15,000 direct beneficiaries of the projects it implemented. Further details about the projects and activities of the Profilaxis Medical Help Foundation, past and present, are available on www.fundatiaprofilaxis.ro.
Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental organization with charitable status, distinct and independent of the company’s commercial operations, established in 1998. During the 19 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has financed 1,046 programs run by 660 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of health, education, social services. The projects had 2 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people, physically, socially or economically disadvantaged persons. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested more than 26 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available on fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
