Government opens telehealth expansion centre in SP

On Monday, the São Paulo government inaugurated the state’s flagship center for innovation in digital health, as part of a plan to expand remote services in the public health network.

The center is a partnership between the Ministry of Health of the State of São Paulo and das Clinicas Hospital From the Faculty of Medicine University of Sao Paulo (HCFMUSP), and will be coordinated by HC’s Perdizes Institute.

98 monitoring stations have been installed at the institute. Remote service A monitoring committee will support the decision-making process. “It’s a silent revolution,” the governor said. Tarcisio de Freitas (Republicans) at the inauguration press conference.

“It will be the place where we will organize all the projects, where we will integrate a range of innovations in the digital field,” he said. Eleusis PaivaSecretary of State for Health.

“(Center) We will conduct quality tests and improve these ideas so that we can then share the knowledge around the world. State of Sao Paulo “This can be applied in clinical practice as soon as possible,” he added.

According to the minister, the service is inspired by initiatives from the National Health Service, the British Public Health System and the famous Johns Hopkins University in the United States. The planned investment for the program amounts to R$166 million.

How it works

The centre links the four telehealth models adopted in the country: primary and specialist care, hospital care and assistance to populations deprived of liberty.

In the case of primary care, which is the gateway to the health system, the service is called “TeleAPS”. The patient seeks out a basic health unit (UBS), with or without an appointment, and after examination is transferred to the teleservice room to Consultation With a dedicated family and community medicine specialist attached to the health center.

So far, 30 municipalities have joined the initiative, representing more than 8,000 remote services. In these cases, the accuracy rate was 82%, or eight out of ten. Inquiries They did not need to be referred to other doctors.

According to the Secretariat, in addition to providing services at UBS, tablets will be used so that remote consultations can be carried out with patients who need home monitoring. The plan is to gradually expand the model to all municipalities in São Paulo.

Another project related to primary care is TeleSAP, which provides remote services in 26 prison units. According to the department, by the first week of August, more than 1,300 people had been seen in 1,500 consultations, including in the specialties of psychiatry, orthopedics, neurology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, hematology and nephrology.

For specialized care, the state offers “AME+ Digital”. Currently, the model provides assistance to the population deprived of liberty in 63 prison units with medical staff for inpatient care. In the coming months, it will start offering a hybrid service in the AMEs of Dracena, Ourinhos, Itapeva and Botucatu. The government says the idea is to overcome the shortage of specialized professionals in some regions.

In cases of high complexity, TeleUTI is designed to help teams in public health hospitals discuss clinical cases of patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU). The initiative is in the training phase for health professionals.