The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the times of implementation and regulation of technological practices in medicine and in the prescription of medicines
the global coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 generated quite a challenge for the Argentine health system and to accelerate the times of implementation and regulation of technological practices in the medicine and in the prescription of medicines, with the aim put in a new paradigm in which will be able to coexist in a necessary balance the face-to-face and the digital professional consultations.
But not only that, but the situation proved that the connectivity is an important ally and headings like the one of the Health they experienced the shortcomings of telecommunications in the country.
Access to health has long since become a basic and universal right. And in a pandemic situation like the current one, the internet access approaches these definitions.
For this reason, the Argentine Senate advances with the implementation of one draft Law on the Interconnection in the Network of Public Health Establishments which invites operators to join.
Telemedicine for everyone
The proposal, which has already begun to be debated in the Committee on Systems, Media and Freedom of Expression of the local Senate, Has the support of the National Government, And aims connect to almost 8,500 Primary Health Care Centers (CAPS) and the 1,500 public hospitals that make up the Argentine Public Health Network.
The leaders of the initiative are clear: declare telemedicine as a telecommunications service and add it to the list of programs that the National Communications Body (Enacom) contemplates in articles of the Universal Service Trust Fund (FSU).
He emphasized: “This service will be operated preferably by the telecommunications company of the Argentine State (Arsat), Or by private or cooperative operators. Expenses requiring connectivity, computerization and maintenance will be covered by the FSU. ”
Thus, the initiative would provide connectivity to “Ultra Broadband” in central health centers, as well as those located in the most rural regions of the national territory
It will also facilitate the upgrade no improvements and efficiencies in their administrative processes, Would increase its performance characteristics and facilitate the collection of information to develop public policies based on this data.
“The idea is that, based on the sanction of the law, telemedicine is considered a telecommunications service that deserves the support of the universal service and the FSU, a funding that corresponds to both Arsat and the operators private individuals, cooperatives and ISPs of all kinds “, he commented Guillermo Schor Landman, one of the authors of the project and historical promoter of telemedicine in Argentina.
And he added: “Especially considering that the most needed for this type of service are those places that are further away or outside the big cities.”
The need for connectivity in the country is in high demand. about about 400 localities have a node of Arsat but that do not own an operator, that is to say, that the cabling of fiber does not connect with any node of these towns, leaving without connectivity to thousands of people. And the problem is exacerbated when it comes to telemedicine.
“It is absolutely essential to have an information system supported by a telecommunications / ICT network that allows real-time information sharing between all providers of social and health services,” he argued about the project in dialogue with TeleSemana.com.
Plus, he defined it as a “vital implementation of ICT, as it would contribute to making health information systems much more effective and efficient.”
Telemedicine was imposed in 2020 with the effects of pandemic confinement
Political struggles for approval
This is the second time the proposal has passed the Senate after reaching parliamentary status in the midst of the administration of Mauricio Macri after being discontinued for lack of treatment.
Now, again presented to the House by María Inés Pilatti Vergara, national senator for the Front d’Tots, The project now gets a second chance, having passed its first stage of committee debate.
“This time, the project is moving forward with a lot of support unlike the previous attempt, because we are better in tune when diagnosing the problem”, he argued Agustí Kozak, Economist who is part of the team of specialists working on the initiative, while showing “optimistic“.
although 2021 is an election year in Argentina and many projects would tend to be overlooked in the face of this factor, the need this project seeks to address takes its time trying to be accepted.
Advances in Argentina the bill of Interconnection in Network of the Establishments of the Public Health
The implementation of digital recipes
The use of digital recipes of medicines and medical consultations through electronic communication devices are the two main changes that became widespread during the pandemic and that in the country currently have legislative projects in advanced treatment to regulate them.
In the framework of the virtual meeting, the national deputy Pablo Yedlin, Doctor and head of the Social Action and Public Health Commission of the lower house, spoke on “Digital Prescription and Medical Telecare legislation” and advanced on the history of the rule that was recently passed and passed to the Senate for its treatment.
Yedlin recalled that the “Law of the Art of Healing”, From 1967 established that “prescriptions and prescriptions must be handwritten, in Spanish, dated and signed”, but then modifications were made that some care centers or social works had begun to implement.
“There have been several attempts in these two years to want to move forward in electronic formats, but with back and forth until the pandemic accelerated everything“, Stressed the legislator, who has cited the express authorization of the Ministry of Health of the Nation for the use of the digital prescription, as a way to avoid unnecessary mobilization of patients during quarantine.
Yedlin has emphasized the importance of ensure privacy and preserve patient data, And considered that overcoming the pandemic the way forward “should be satisfied that the prescription is enabled electronically, that people can go to any pharmacy, and that the pharmacist can see in a system this information and then file digitally “.
For his part, the senator Mario Fiad, chairman of the Senate Health Committee of the Nation, He stressed that in the short term the body will begin to deal in committee the law arrived Deputies on digital prescription so as not to cause unnecessary delays.
Fiad noted that after making inquiries with all the national medical sector work was done on a bill that would advance more on telemedicine on the one hand and digital medical records on the other. The standard seeks to regulate telemedicine and presents, as a central point, the formation of a National Digital Health Agency, which will be in charge of regulations, controls and definitions.