Montenegrin healthcare is becoming a networked and unified system, and telemedicine brings benefits to workers and patients, who no longer have to travel to the Clinical Center (KCCG) to obtain an expert opinion and continue adequate medical treatment, announced the Minister of Health, Kenan Hrapović.
On the occasion of the opening of the telemedicine cabinet at the General Hospital in Pljevlje and the establishment of a tele link connection between that hospital and KCCG, as part of the Project for the Development and Implementation of Telemedicine in Montenegrin Healthcare, he said that the project will bring benefits to doctors.
"In direct communication via video link with colleagues from KCCG, they will be able to exchange information, opinions, diagnostics and everything related to a specific pathology of a patient," Hrapović said.
In this way, in this exchange of opinions, they can receive further inputs on how the patient can receive further diagnosis and treatment specifically in the Pljeval hospital.
He explained that telemedicine allows doctors to jointly make a decision on continuing the treatment of a patient located in Pljevlja.
"And in the end, they can decide whether the patient should be sent further for diagnosis and treatment to the Clinical Center. Today we attended one such video conference, where we really saw a big step forward when it comes to Montenegrin healthcare. "We watched the live communication of doctors from the neurological department of the hospital in Pljevlje and the council of doctors of the Clinical Center," Hrapović said.
According to him, telemedicine offers great benefits for patients in one place, who can receive the diagnosis from the beginning to the end.
"It's a big benefit for patients that they don't have to be bullied into traveling to the Clinical Center, as they did until now, to get a second opinion," Hrapović explained.
He said that starting today Montenegrin healthcare is becoming a networked, unique healthcare system.
"And in the future, citizens from hospitals will have the opportunity to receive a second reference opinion from the Clinical Center. This is a pilot project and we started with three hospitals, namely Pljevlja, Berane and Bar. The second step is the networking of other hospitals in Montenegro," said Hrapović.
The next step in the development of the telemedicine project, he said, is to connect the Clinical Center with regional centers.
"And in this way, if there is a need, the doctors of the Clinical Center can get an additional opinion from colleagues from the region in order to get quality diagnostics for our patient. Also, the next step is to connect the Clinical Center with well-known world centers, in order to exchange information," said Hrapović.
He stated that there will be similar projects in the future in order to raise the quality of health care for every citizen in Montenegro in an even better way.
The director of the General Hospital in Pljevlja, Ernes Gadžo, believes that the possibilities of telemedicine are huge and manifold and that the development of modern medicine cannot be imagined without telemedicine.
"Namely, telemedicine enables direct, audio-visual contact, primarily between doctors, but also other health workers, due to the exchange of information, opinions and experiences in real time, thus erasing spatial distances," said Gadžo.
From the patient's point of view, as he said, the formation of the telemedicine council contributes to a better, more complete, higher-quality provision of health services in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
"Also, telemedicine enables continuous education of healthcare workers, in the sense of direct participation in various types of educational processes, participation in seminars, lectures, presentations without the need to be absent from work during the education process," Gadžo explained.
The director of KCCG, Zorica Kovačević, said that the application of telemedicine in the health system of Montenegro will contribute to more effective cooperation between health workers and the provision of better health care.
"We should do everything to keep doctors like those at the General Hospital in Pljevlje, not to allow them to leave Pljevlje, because we need them in order to successfully implement this project. This applies to Bar, Berane, as well as to the whole of Montenegro, because it is necessary to be in solidarity, to cooperate and improve the provision of quality health care to patients", said Kovačević.
She said that citizens should be introduced to telemedicine in order to take advantage of its benefits.
"This is something revolutionary for the healthcare system. In this way, we raise the quality of health care provision, we work as one team in the whole of Montenegro. "Citizens should be familiar with this innovation in the health system, so that we have the beginning of the development of telemedicine at the highest level", assessed Kovačević.
Doctor of neurology at KCCG, Jevto Eraković, said that the quality of care provided in the Clinical Center, as well as in general hospitals, is much higher than the public's perception and that the introduction of telemedicine into the health system is a big step.
"The system works in such a way that through the commander, through which a link is established with the connected hospital, we get a display of the patient and the doctor on the monitor, and the results and diagnostic procedures performed for that patient are displayed on the second monitor," explained Eraković.
The mayor of Pljevlja, Mirko Đačić, assessed that there is a generation of young doctors in Pljevlja, who are professional, educated and able to carry out such projects, which have their own complete analogy and proportion when it comes to the world level.
Director of the Department for Marketing, Sales and Customer Care at M:tel, Milivoje Cerović, said that the telemedicine project is just one of the projects within M:tel's digital strategy.
"It is very important that we bring innovations with our activities. This is a big step forward, not only for people who work in healthcare, but also for all of us, who are the users. I believe that very soon we will be able to establish a link for consultations with much larger centers, starting with regional ones such as Belgrade, Zagreb and Rijeka, which are already recognized in telemedicine," Cerović said.
Member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU), Ljubiša Stanković, said that the Montenegrin health system will soon be part of the world telemedicine system.
"In January, just a few months ago, we discussed the basic idea of how to create this extremely important project and connect Montenegro through telemedicine into one medical system for providing services. The intention is to be part of the global telemedicine system very soon. We will have consultations from the region and beyond," Stanković announced.
The project of development and implementation of telemedicine in Montenegrin healthcare is implemented by the Ministry of Health, KCCG, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) and the Health Insurance Fund, and the donation of 900 thousand euros was provided by the company Mtel.
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