National Institute of Telecommunications

On May 8, 2023, at the Institute of Heart Diseases of the University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław, the capabilities of the remote medical consultation platform, e-Konsylium, were publicly demonstrated for the first time. During the demonstration, experts from the National Institute of Telecommunications, along with Wrocław doctors, conducted consultations for three patients from Lower Silesian hospitals. The event was attended by the Minister of Digital Affairs, Janusz Cieszyński, the Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski, the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Telecommunications, Prof. Paweł Pławiak, the Rector of the Wrocław Medical University, Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, as well as Prof. Wiktor Kuliczkowski from the Institute of Heart Diseases at and the regional consultant in the field of cardiology.

The e-Konsylium platform allows for remote medical consultations involving the best specialists in a given field. Doctors from smaller hospitals, primary care doctors, and patients will be able to discuss particularly complex cases and share test results with these specialists. All decisions made during e-consultations, as well as medical documentation, will be recorded, securely stored in the cloud, and accessible for further treatment.

These are data with which we can have a full interaction, manipulate them, take measurements, which greatly enhances the consultation process, which has been quite challenging up to this point. We are currently in the process of implementation testing. We plan to finalize and expand the platform by the end of the year and continue expanding in the following years,

said Prof. Paweł Pławiak during the presentation.

The creation of e-Konsylium is a response to the difficult access for patients to the most advanced treatment methods and the best doctors. Currently, consultations for complex cases involving multiple specialists and necessary tests are difficult to organize and consume a lot of valuable time. The new platform will shorten the diagnostic process and enable broad access to modern treatment methods for patients outside of major medical centers. It will also reduce treatment costs by eliminating the need for numerous doctor visits to establish a diagnosis.

The platform is set to be refined and launched later this year. Test implementation has already begun within the network of cardiology hospitals. The choice of this medical field is not accidental. Heart diseases and circulatory system disorders are among the leading causes of death in Poland. Shortening the diagnostic process is often crucial in their cases. In the next steps, e-Konsylium will be applied in oncology and eventually in other medical specialties.

E-Konsylium is a collaborative project between the National Institute of Telecommunications and the Institute of Heart Diseases at the University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław. It is being funded by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Affairs.

This is not the only telemedicine solution being developed by our Institute. Since March of this year, the towns in the Lublin Voivodeship have been visited by the Okobus - a mobile ophthalmic diagnostic point created in collaboration with the Medical University of Lublin. It helps detect ophthalmic conditions in patients with diabetes living in smaller communities at an early stage. More information about the project can be found on the website gov.pl/okobus.