Digital health on the rise, the WelCare case for oncological treatments

Tele-consultation, tele-visit, tele-monitoring, but also digital applications for health and digital channels for collaboration between doctors of different hospitals, in addition to the widespread use of electronic health records. These are just some of the telemedicine tools that are changing the face of healthcare. This was discussed during the ‘Connected health’ event, promoted by Novartis, on the occasion of the launch of the WelCare telemedicine platform in oncology and hematology, which connects centers and medical specialists from all over Italy, to facilitate the exchange of information and improve the management of patients with diseases such as breast cancer, melanoma, chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms, mastocytosis, chronic myeloid leukemia, but also patients who are candidates for treatment with Car-T. At the center of the meeting, which involved experts from the scientific world, representatives of institutions and patient associations, the data of the analysis carried out by the Digital Innovation in Health Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, according to which the pandemic has favored the use of digital collaboration platforms between doctors and patients, with patient use increasing by almost 20 percentage points during the emergency (from 11% to 30%). Today 82% of the patients interviewed say they want to use these platforms in the future. WelCare was born last year, in full pandemic, thanks to the collaboration between Novartis and Welmed. The telemedicine platform has facilitated the exchange of information between doctors and the delivery centers of Car-T advanced therapy. Based on this experience, Novartis has decided to extend the project and today announced the expansion of the platform, to connect medical specialists who, in addition to Car-T, also deal with patients with other pathologies throughout Italy. oncological and hematological. The company ensures that the commitment in telemedicine will continue with new tools, to directly reach the patient in the area, in support of areas such as that of general medicine. “The management of patients such as oncology – comments Saverio Cinieri, Aiom president-elect – passes through complex diagnostic, therapeutic and assistance paths, which often require close collaboration between specialist centers and treatment centers in the area. With telemedicine this logic is simplified and improved, because thanks to digital technologies we can make the data travel and not the patient , with significant savings and with a significant impact on the lives of patients and their families “. “The WelCare telemedicine platform explains Luigi Boano, General Manager of Novartis Oncology Italy – was born last year, in the middle of the pandemic, to foster collaboration between the Italian centers involved in advanced Car-T therapies. The experience gained over the months of the emergency has shown us the great value of this tool and has led us today to expand this platform for the management of other oncological and haematological diseases. An impact, that of WelCare on the health management of cancer patients, which we are committed to evaluate concretely, to thoroughly analyze the real contribution of digital health to improving the health system “.