Aceti (Salutequità): “Only 32% family doctors issue digital prescriptions”

“In Italy 30% of general practitioners exchanged information through digital channels with healthcare facilities or other doctors (European average 43%, Denmark 98%, Sweden 81%); 32% issued digital prescriptions (European average 50%) , Sweden 100%, Finland and Denmark over 90%). Furthermore, our country is in 20th place for four categories examined: use of the Internet in the health sector, infrastructure development, digital skills, safety and security awareness. privacy; while it is in 26th place in the EU in the Desi ranking (Index of the digitization of the economy and society) 2020, ahead of only Bulgaria and Romania, So, let’s not shine, on the contrary. “To take a snapshot of the state of the art of digital health in Italy is Tonino Aceti, president of Salutequità, during his speech at the webinar “Digital Health. Innovation in the treatment of chronic autoimmune rheumatological and dermatological diseases”, promoted by Ucb Italia. “Also in q his area – continues Aceti – we find an inequality in the use and access to digital technologies to interact with the public administration from one region to another. The regional digital divide sees different numbers, depending on the areas of Italy, as can be seen from the report of the Court of Auditors “Report to Parliament on the state of implementation of the Three-year Plan for IT 2017-2019 in local authorities”. The best performances are recorded in the North: North-East (27%); North-West (26%); Center (26%); South and Islands (18%); Basilicata (17%), Calabria (17%), Sicily (15%); Autonomous provinces of Trento (32%) and Bolzano (29%). As if that were not enough, again according to the Desi 2019 ranking, Italy is in thirteenth position for the exchange of data between general practitioners, while for the use of digital prescriptions we are in 20th place. Therefore, we are very far from the European average for the exchange of information (43%) and the use of digital recipes (50%). ”It is no better when it comes to spending on digital health. “According to the Digital Innovation in Health Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, we spend 1.5 billion – recalls the president of Salutequità – equal to 1.2% of total health expenditure. But we could do a lot more. Also according to the Digital Innovation in Health Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, up to 66 million hours can be saved for avoidable travel “.” We then – continues Aceti – the NRP which allocates 1 billion euros for telemedicine – tele-assistance , tele-consultation, tele-monitoring and tele-reporting – to better support patients with chronic diseases. To obtain funding, however, integration with the electronic health record (ESF) and the effective harmonization of health services must be guaranteed. Then there are 1.45 billion for the digitization of the first and second level DEAs, 1.38 billion for the enhancement of the electronic health record, and 290 million for the predictive model to guarantee Italian Lea and health surveillance and supervision “. Telemedicine experiences in the area, in 2018, “according to data from the Ministry of Health were 282. In the lead are regions such as Emilia-Romagna (36), Lombardy (35), Tuscany and Sicily (31), rearmost , on the other hand, Molise (1) and Basilicata (1). The target of the 282 telemedicine experiences – concludes Aceti – sees cardiology (43%), radiology (19%) and pulmonology (14) at the top. The most widespread methods were teleconsultation, telemonitoring and telerefertation ”.