On 08/31, SIG COVID19 BR, created in emergency by RUTE to deepen the debate about the pandemic at the end of March, reached the special milestone of 50 sessions with another international exchange of experience in partnership with the Brazilian Association of Tele-health and Tele-medicine (ABTms). The National Tele-health coordinator of the Ministry of Health of Argentina Dr. Maria Celeste Savignano and the director of the Digital Health Department of the Ministry of Health of Health of Brazil Dr. Adriana da Silva e Sousa presented actions the countries have done for the development of tele-medicine, which became essential during the combat to Covid-19.

The virtual meeting was moderated by RUTE national coordinator Luiz Ary Messina and the president of the Iberic Society of Tele-Medicine and Tele-Health the Spaniard Dr. Carlés Fabregas.

Dr. Maria Celeste Savignano started the meeting presenting the health data from Argentina and the federal Tele-health plan, which transmits the incentive to specific qualification of the competent human resources  in the area, the establishment of a monitoring and continued evolution plan, among other guidelines, for articulation by the Integrated Health Service Networks (RISS).  She also showed the tele-appointment growth curve during the pandemic.

“The main thing for the development of tele-health in Argentina is to put people before technology. It is fundamental to create relationship with each health team in the country, who will continue these practices, for motivation to be bigger and for us to be able to build together”, the National Tele-health coordinator of the Ministry of Health of Argentina pointed out.

Dr. Adriana da Silva e Sousa proceeded to exchange of experience presenting the present and future actions related to digital health in Brazil.

“We believe that tele-health will improve the service to about 70% of the population, who depend on SUS. I believe that we, at the Ministry of Health, are managing to pass the first stage, which is to identify the obstacles and the problems in the last ten years and which we can solve to be able to expand these actions within the numberless possibilities of tele-medicine. Upon identification of the problems, we are trying to make the due corrections. As the support from the MH itself, the possibility to transfer knowledge among the entities involved in the Ministry and we are making other specific prompt debates as well. We hope that by the end of the year, we will manage to obtain a new design, with possibility to expand by means of knowledge transfer the debureaucratization within the country. We imagine that this is the way”, the director of the Digital Health Department of the Ministry of Health affirmed.

Watch the full session

Almost 2,500 attendees registered since the creation
Since the first session held on 03/23 until the 50th, 2492 attendees were officially registered in the debates about the new coronavirus, but the group coordination believes that this number represents only half of the actually number. Because to confirm presence in the meeting, the attendees have to undergo a small process and many of them do not do that.

Check out the presence graphic by region of the country:

RUTE was a pioneer in the deepening of the discussions about the pandemic. In order to contribute to the Unified Health System (SUS), mainly to the health education establishments, on 3/9, it invited the units to participate in the special session with their professionals, professors and students. How are we facing Covid19? Just two days after that, the World Health Organization classified the Coronavirus 2019 Disease (COVID-19) as pandemic. This means that it was recognized that the virus was circulating on all continents and there were oligosymptomatic cases, which made identification difficult. Thus, mainly in the South hemisphere, where Brazil is located, the countries should get ready for the autumn/winter with the purpose to avoid serious cases and death.

The coordination of the collaborative network has already been monitoring the process since the end of 2019, and as in other occasions, while the structure of the RNP System was prepared to contribute to the combat and the mitigation of the health emergency sharing the best technical-scientific knowledge.

The follwoing researchers were present at the webinar: Prof. Dr. Nancy Bellei – Infectology Unifesp (The progress of the infection in the world: virological and clinical aspects), Prof. Dr. Eduardo Medeiros – Infectology Unifesp (How Brazil is facing the pandemic), Prof. Dr. Ho Yeh Li - Infectology USP (The isolation experience in Anápolis), moderated by Dr. Nelson Akamine - IT Director of HU-HSP-Unifesp.

The historical session was opened to all professionals and managers of the establishments with RUTE units and health education establishments, with remote participation by Video-Conference and Web Conference services of RNP in the session, up to the limit of the infrastructure, which, at that time, was much lower than the current capacity, starting a webinar “new normal”. From this on-line meeting, the community realized the importance of having a “permanent” space for technical-scientific discussion with national and international content, and thus, SIG COVID19 BR was instituted by RUTE coordination in emergency, installed on 03/23/2020.

Learn more about SIG COVID19 BR