Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022;30(1):77-92.
doi: 10.1007/s10389-021-01609-8. Epub 2021 Jun 15.

Implementation of tele visit healthcare services triggered by the COVID-19 emergency: the Trentino Province experience

Sara Testa  1 , Oscar Mayora-Ibarra  1 , Enrico Maria Piras  1 , Olivia Balagna  2 , Stefano Micocci  1 , Alberto Zanutto  1 , Stefano Forti  1 , Diego Conforti  2 , Andrea Nicolini  1 , Giulia Malfatti  1 , Monica Moz  1 , Lorenzo Gios  1 , Pier Paolo Benetollo  3 , Ettore Turra  3 , Massimo Orrasch  3 , Francesca Zambotti  3 , Maurizio Del Greco  3 , Massimiliano Maines  3 , Lorena Filippi  3 , Monica Ghezzi  3 , Federica Romanelli  3 , Elisabetta Racano  3 , Mauro Marin  3 , Marta Betta  3 , Elisabetta Bertagnolli  3
Affiliations

Implementation of tele visit healthcare services triggered by the COVID-19 emergency: the Trentino Province experience

Sara Testa et al. Z Gesundh Wiss. 2022.

Abstract

Aim: In response to the SARS-CoV-2 emergency, the Competence Centre on digital health 'TrentinoSalute4.0' has developed TreC_Televisita, a tele visit solution that meets the needs of the Trentino healthcare system and maintains high-quality patient-doctor interactions while respecting social distancing. This paper highlights how 'TreC_Televisita' was integrated into the Trentino healthcare system and its potential to become a structural and durable solution for the future local healthcare service provisioning.

Subject and methods: This paper presents the multifactorial context that TreC_Televisita has faced for its implementation and the strategies adopted for its structural integration into the healthcare system. The analysis focuses on the main issues faced for the integration of the tele visits (e.g. privacy, payments) and how the context of TrentinoSalute4.0 permitted responding quickly to its implementation during the pandemic. It also describes how TreC_Televisita fits into the healthcare continuum from the organisational and technological standpoint, the end-user perspective and the barriers that could hamper the solution scalability.

Results: TreC_Televisita has demonstrated to be a technological solution that can be contextualised for different clinical domains beyond SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, it has shown its potential to scale up the solution beyond the COVID-19 emergency to the whole healthcare provisioning system in the long term.

Conclusion: Being a positive experience in the first months of its implementation, the long-term goal is to transform TreC_Televisita into a structural pillar of the Trentino healthcare system, setting the bases for a sustainable, win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved in healthcare service provisioning.

Keywords: COVID-19; Digital health; Tele consult; Tele visit; Telemedicine; eHealth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest/competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
TrentinoSalute4.0 stakeholders and main roles
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
TreC_Televisita as part of digital management of health condition
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
TreC_Televisita implementation within the TreC ecosystem
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ag Ahmed MA, Gagnon MP, Hamelin-Brabant L, Mbemba G, Alami H. A mixed methods systematic review of success factors of mhealth and telehealth for maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa. mHealth. 2017;3:22. doi: 10.21037/mhealth.2017.05.04. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bloem BR, Dorsey ER, Okun MS. The coronavirus disease 2019 crisis as catalyst for telemedicine for chronic neurological disorders. JAMA Neurol. 2020;77(8):927–928. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.1452. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Botti A, Monda A. Sustainable value co-creation and digital health: the case of Trentino eHealth ecosystem. Sustainability. 2020;12(13):5263. doi: 10.3390/su12135263. - DOI
    1. Dragoni M, Bailoni T, Maimone R, Marchesoni M, Eccher C (2018) HORUS.AI - a knowledge-based solution supporting health persuasive self-monitoring. In: Proceedings of the ISWC 2018 the 17th international semantic web conference, Monterey, CA, USA, vol 2180. CEUR-WS.org
    1. Dragoni M et al (2019) TreC diabetes: a semantic platform for supporting the self-management of patients. In: Proceedings of the second international workshop on semantic web meets health data management (SWH 2019) co-located with the 18th international semantic web conference (ISWC 2019), Auckland, New Zealand, October 26, 2019, 2515:30–41. CEUR-WS.org

LinkOut - more resources