Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region

Telemedicine solutions have been rapidly expanding in recent years and the COVID pandemic has provided an unforeseen testbed of their potential. In Piedmont, a few studies have clearly shown that the deployment of telemedicine results from the intertwining of many factors, including the consideratio...

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Main Authors: Marta Alesina, Matteo Ballesio, Marco Dalmasso, Sylvie Occelli, Michele Presutti, Bibiana Scelfo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Netcom Association 2023-05-01
Series:Netcom
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/netcom/7250
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author Marta Alesina
Matteo Ballesio
Marco Dalmasso
Sylvie Occelli
Michele Presutti
Bibiana Scelfo
author_facet Marta Alesina
Matteo Ballesio
Marco Dalmasso
Sylvie Occelli
Michele Presutti
Bibiana Scelfo
author_sort Marta Alesina
collection DOAJ
description Telemedicine solutions have been rapidly expanding in recent years and the COVID pandemic has provided an unforeseen testbed of their potential. In Piedmont, a few studies have clearly shown that the deployment of telemedicine results from the intertwining of many factors, including the consideration of access and sustainability issues. Building on these premises, this study analyses the 2019 health mobility to specialist care in Piedmont local health areas. It investigates to what extent telemedicine services might overcome the distance gap between the place of residence of patients and that of delivery of healthcare services, thus reducing the need to move. Medical specialties and the type of examinations which can be delivered digitally were first identified; then the number of patients eligible to telemedicine treatment was estimated. Finally, a few hypotheses regarding the possibility to substitute physical encounters with virtual ones, through tele-visits were formulated and their impact on the reduction of mobility flows and travelled distance examined. To give more practical ground to the discussion, reference is made to the situation of TO3 ASL, where a telemedicine plan has been recently laid out.
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institution Kabale University
issn 0987-6014
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language English
publishDate 2023-05-01
publisher Netcom Association
record_format Article
series Netcom
spelling doaj-art-7b4f2ee9aaa442ffad880fd32df497d52025-01-30T11:01:26ZengNetcom AssociationNetcom0987-60142431-210X2023-05-013610.4000/netcom.7250Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont regionMarta AlesinaMatteo BallesioMarco DalmassoSylvie OccelliMichele PresuttiBibiana ScelfoTelemedicine solutions have been rapidly expanding in recent years and the COVID pandemic has provided an unforeseen testbed of their potential. In Piedmont, a few studies have clearly shown that the deployment of telemedicine results from the intertwining of many factors, including the consideration of access and sustainability issues. Building on these premises, this study analyses the 2019 health mobility to specialist care in Piedmont local health areas. It investigates to what extent telemedicine services might overcome the distance gap between the place of residence of patients and that of delivery of healthcare services, thus reducing the need to move. Medical specialties and the type of examinations which can be delivered digitally were first identified; then the number of patients eligible to telemedicine treatment was estimated. Finally, a few hypotheses regarding the possibility to substitute physical encounters with virtual ones, through tele-visits were formulated and their impact on the reduction of mobility flows and travelled distance examined. To give more practical ground to the discussion, reference is made to the situation of TO3 ASL, where a telemedicine plan has been recently laid out.https://journals.openedition.org/netcom/7250telemedicinehealth mobilityhealthcare accessterritorial health-care deliverylocal area telemedicine plan.
spellingShingle Marta Alesina
Matteo Ballesio
Marco Dalmasso
Sylvie Occelli
Michele Presutti
Bibiana Scelfo
Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
Netcom
telemedicine
health mobility
healthcare access
territorial health-care delivery
local area telemedicine plan.
title Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
title_full Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
title_fullStr Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
title_short Telemedicine in the making: insights from an analysis of health mobility in the Piedmont region
title_sort telemedicine in the making insights from an analysis of health mobility in the piedmont region
topic telemedicine
health mobility
healthcare access
territorial health-care delivery
local area telemedicine plan.
url https://journals.openedition.org/netcom/7250
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