Telemedicine Moves to Forefront in Antioquia’s Battle Against Coronavirus
Antioquia Governor Aníbal Gaviria Correa on May 20 hailed leadership by the “LivingLab-Telemedicina” patient-contact-and-testing center here in the continuing struggle to detect, contain and overcome Coronavirus.
“LivingLab-Telemedicine is developing as one of the greatest successes in Antioquia in confronting the Coronavirus contingency,” Governor Gaviria said following a personal visit to the lab.
“This, in a way, is a hospital not only for the present but also for the future. Here we have the functions of promotion and prevention, but also, especially, everything related to telehealth and telemedicine, which has been absolutely key to containment of Covid-19,” he added.
To date, the lab and its 200 health professionals have dealt with more than 200,000 calls from Antioquian citizens worried about suspected or possible cases of contagion, along with related concerns about mental health problems arising from the pandemic.
“One of the keys to the [relatively low rates of contagion] that Antioquia has obtained has been telemedicine and, in this initiative, the University of Antioquia, the LivingLab, other universities in the city, the EPS [health-insurance networks] and the government of Antioquia are integrated,” the Governor said.
Antioquia Health Secretary Lina María Bustamante Sánchez added that the LivingLab-Telemedicine center not only screens initial calls from concerned citizens, but also refers patients with likely contagion for follow-up testing, diagnosis and treatment services.
