Biomedical subjects

Francisco del Pozo

Publications and source records attributed to Francisco del Pozo.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

An integral care telemedicine system for HIV/AIDS patients.

OBJECTIVE: In this article we will describe a new approach to improve the quality of care of chronic HIV/AIDS patients, combining the integral care approach with a telemedicine system. METHODS: Following the integral care approach, we included the patient in a multidisciplinary care team, covering the whole process of care with a telemedicine system that allows the patient to improve his/her self-care and to be remotely followed-up by the healthcare professionals. RESULTS: This challenge has been met by the creation of the "VIHrtual Hospital" project. Its main goal is the definition, development, clinical routine installation and evaluation of a telemedicine service that complements standard care with a telecare follow-up for treating stable HIV infected patients, in a chronic stage of their disease, and study if that improves the quality of assistance and the expense per patient compared to the conventional control (without telemedicine service) that patients usually have. Although the study is not yet finished, in the discussion the main benefits and drawbacks of this telemedicine system are described. CONCLUSIONS: The main conclusion of the article is that a new home telecare model for chronic HIV/AIDS patients has been created and has been implemented through the "VIHrtual Hospital" in the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona (Spain). The architecture of this web-based system fulfills the demanding security and integration requirements of the IT department of the hospital. An easy-to-use graphical interface for both patients and professionals has also been developed. The low costs of the system allow us to cover a wide range of patients and promising results are being obtained regarding the use of telemedicine systems for improving the follow-up care of chronic HIV/AIDS patients and for creating a new care model for this disease.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed2006

Telemedicine experience for chronic care in COPD.

Information and telecommunication technologies are called to play a major role in the changes that healthcare systems have to face to cope with chronic disease. This paper reports a telemedicine experience for the home care of chronic patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and an integrated system designed to carry out this experience. To determine the impact on health, the chronic care telemedicine system was used during one year (2002) with 157 COPD patients in a clinical experiment; endpoints were readmissions and mortality. Patients in the intervention group were followed up at their homes and could contact the care team at any time through the call center. The care team shared a unique electronic chronic patient record (ECPR) accessible through the web-based patient management module or the home visit units. Results suggest that integrated home telemedicine services can support health professionals caring for patients with chronic disease, and improve their health. We have found that simple telemedicine services (ubiquitous access to ECPR, ECPR shared by care team, accessibility to case manager, problem reporting integrated in ECPR) can increase the number of patients that were not readmitted (51% intervention, 33% control), are acceptable to professionals, and involve low installation and exploitation costs. Further research is needed to determine the role of telemonitoring and televisit services for this kind of patients.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed2006

Compact laser radar and three-dimensional camera.

A novel three-dimensional (3D) camera is capable of providing high-precision 3D images in real time. The camera uses a diode laser to illuminate the scene, a shuttered solid-state charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor, and a simple phase detection technique based on the sensor shutter. The amplitude of the reflected signal carries the luminance information, while the phase of the signal carries range information. The system output is coded as a video signal. This camera offers significant advantages over existing technology. The precision in range is dependent only on phase shift and laser power and theoretically is far superior to existing time-of-flight laser radar systems. Other advantages are reduced size and simplicity and compact and inexpensive construction. We built a prototype that produced high-resolution images in range the (z) and x-y.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

A study of a rural telemedicine system in the Amazon region of Peru.

Voice and data communication facilities (email via VHF radio) were installed in 39 previously isolated health facilities in the province of Alto Amazonas in Peru. A baseline study was carried out in January 2001 and a follow-up evaluation in May 2002, after nine months of operation. We measured the reliability of the technology and the effect the system had on staff access to medical training and information. We also measured the indirect effects on the general population of access to better health-care. The experimental data were collected from 35 of the 39 sites in face-to-face questionnaire interviews. Before installation of the system, the mean consultation rate was 3 per month per facility (95% CI 1.5 to 4.5). At the end of the study, the mean consultation rate was 23 per month per facility (95% CI 14.7 to 31.5). There were 205 emergency transfers from the 39 health facilities. The system was employed in all these cases to alert the referral centre. The mean time required for evacuation was reduced from 8.6 h to 5.2 h. Health-care personnel reported that in 58 of the emergency cases (28%) the use of the system saved the life of the patient. The study shows that the use of communication technologies appropriate to local needs solves many problems in rural primary care, and that voice and email communication via VHF radio are feasible and useful for rural telemedicine.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2004

New trends in diabetes management: mobile telemedicine closed-loop system.

The rapid growth and development of information technologies over recent years, in the areas of mobile and wireless technologies is shaping a new technological scenario of telemedicine in diabetes. This telemedicine scenario can play an important role for further acceptance by diabetic patients of the existing continuous glucose monitoring systems and insulin pumps with the final goal of improving current therapeutic procedures. This paper describes a Personal Smart Assistant integrated in a multi-access telemedicine architecture for the implementation of a mobile telemedicine closed-loop system for diabetes management. The system is being evaluated within the European Union project named INCA ("Intelligent Control Assistant for Diabetes").

Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring↗