Telemedicine reduces the gaps between the regions and the capital
The parents were extremely happy to learn that the “Voinicel” Center offers not only consultations, but also online, through telemedicine services. For families with children in the Cahul and Ungheni districts, they are extremely valuable, as parents do not have to wait weeks for an appointment, bear transportation costs, or miss or complete the service.
Maria and Sergiu have consultations thanks to the parental and telemedicine sessions that the “Voinicel” Center organizes weekly.
Telemedicine is, in essence, the distance provision of services, and the “Voinicel” Center offers online consultations to which parents of children up to the age of three from Cahul and Ungheni districts, at risk of developing developmental disorders, can connect. The sessions are similar to physical consultations and facilitate parents’ access to specialized services in areas where there are not enough specialists or where access to certain medical services is limited.
“I learned about online training services from the physical therapist. I’ve attended two sessions so far – it’s something else when the competent people explain it to you. We already know that when Iachint plays we have to try to enter his world – we add one more toy or exclude one and observe how he reacts,” said Maria.
With the help of modern technologies, doctors can consult and monitor children remotely, without compromising the standards of medical care.
“Used developed, telemedicine can be an important resource for health systems, but also a link between public health services that will reconfigure after the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Igor Codreanu, health program coordinator at UNICEF Moldova.
Well, telemedicine is the initial phase in the process of conceptualizing early intervention services with a physical presence in Cahul and Ungheni, which will be established within the “EU4Moldova: Key Regions” program, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP and UNICEF.
Neuropediatrician Mariana Jalbă, who has been part of the team of the “Voinicel” Center since its foundation, offers online consultations together with other specialists from Chisinau, Cahul and Ungheni, thus detecting children’s health problems in the early stages.
Although telemedicine cannot replace a classic medical examination, it can play the role of a preliminary consultation, multiple benefits for both parents and children.
“Through interview-type questions, I try to understand whether it is just a false alarm from the parents or, indeed, the child needs the help of specialists. Sometimes they manage to interact with children as well. I can ask the parent or the specialist who is there on the spot to perform some tasks with the child. which, I can offer some recommendations or, if necessary, suggest to them to come to Chisinau for a complex evaluation”, said Mariana.