The article is in collaboration with Maccabi Health Services
The technological advancement of the last few years, combined with the corona virus that accelerated the processes and caused health services to adopt new technologies and refresh the working methods, brought about a revolution in the worlds of medicine in the community. The health funds were early to understand and internalize the change,
In terms of content, Maccabi Health Services stood out and led the way, which was the first to allow its policyholders to maintain
Online doctor visits at the beginning of the corona epidemic.
Dr. Angela Ironi, head of the Sharon district at Maccabi Health Services for the past two years, knows
the subject closely. “When I attended nursing school 24 years ago, we were taught that medicine is not done over the phone, but I thought differently,” she explains. “The world of health is still far from reaching optimal online medicine. In the years that I managed the nursing department and medical centers at Maccabi Health Services, I was very involved in the development of online medicine, but it was difficult to implement it. During the Corona period, there was a feeling of ‘no choice’ and the technologies provided a good answer to the routine dealings with patients and the management of the disease But today I don’t see the same technological acceleration that will bring about a 180-degree change in telemedicine. Unfortunately, the system is not yet in a place where there are solutions that can eliminate, for example, the need to go to the laboratory to perform blood tests. Therefore, our emphasis is not to introduce technology only there technology, but to find those that produce real value, one that will provide an appropriate response to a broad population and in an accurate way, and this is exactly what Maccabi has been promoting in the past years
Health services under the leadership of CEO Sigal Dadon-Levi.”
From physiotherapy treatments to early diagnosis
Many technologies that provide the same answer are indeed increasingly being used in Maccabi in the Sharon district and throughout the country. For example, a test called Memed is used in cases of suspected infection and helps the doctor, through a blood test, determine within fifteen minutes whether the infection is bacterial or viral. Another example is the wizecare technology that allows you to perform physical therapy online. “The demand for physical therapy treatments in the Sharon district increases every year by 20% to 30%. However, while the demand for treatment increases, there is not enough for the number of new physiotherapists who graduate each year. The platform, which entered the pilot in the district about six months ago, has so far only been given to a few hundred patients in the Sharon district, who reported that the treatment helped them and improved their condition.”
Water meter device / photo: Memed company
The trend towards making medicine accessible to patients does not necessarily involve cutting-edge technologies. For example, the gynecological mobile, about which Dr. Ironi excitedly tells: “It started from a coincidence where a company that owns a mobile with equipment in the field of women’s medicine such as a sophisticated gynecological chair and ultrasound contacted us and at the same time we were contacted by two doctors who asked us to help them get to any place where women have difficulty reaching for medical tests. We put the things together and came up with an amazing project: a mobile that reaches remote settlements in the Sharon district and has a gynecologist in it who invites the patients to undergo an examination to prevent cervical cancer by a gynecologist, which is carried out intimately in a closed mobile. In Israel, about 50% of women do not come for tests to prevent the cervix, and in the peripheral areas the figures are certainly lower. It’s something that can save lives
That is why we are very proud of the project and happy to promote it,” she says.
Gynecological mobile / Photo: illumigyn company
The hybrid era
Dr. Ironi holds a doctorate in the field of telemedicine and is a lecturer at the Ono Academic Library on advanced technologies in medical services. Every week she meets students who will be involved in the various medical professions in the future. “I believe that therapists from all fields should learn about technologies as part of a program the studies. The hybrid era that combines the medicine of the past with the medicine of the future is very challenging and the secret is to know how to combine them in the right doses.”
In the post-corona era, alongside the welcome technological advance, difficult challenges have also arisen, sometimes precisely due to the increasing use of remote medicine tools. “After the corona virus, we reached a situation in the Sharon district of Maccabi where 46% of family medicine is performed remotely. These are very high figures, and today the challenge is actually to reduce the numbers and return to face-to-face meetings. We found that the use of these tools is incorrect, people are using the platform to contact a doctor for non-medical matters and that To a large extent, it also causes the cheapness of the profession and harms the doctor’s availability. The one who is harmed in the end is the patient. So, in addition to any introduction, we must also respond to these challenges.”
And what will the future bring? Dr. Ironi is optimistic. “Maccabi has always been a right-wing marker in the health system and I believe that it will continue to do so in the future as well, whether it is by introducing appropriate technologies, by thinking about where to introduce services and where, by promoting personalized medicine, complementary medicine, and more. Maccabi is a leading health care organization in Israel that provides medical services to approximately 2.7 million residents in Israel and therefore we make sure to set an example for other health care organizations and bring our members the most advanced technologies, the most innovative services alongside the most skilled medical teams who provide them with medical treatment that combines humanity and technology in a way that is not Seen elsewhere. One of Maccabi’s goals is to enable
For the doctor to deal as little as possible with the documentation and as much as possible with the patient in front of him, and all those arrays
Entering the hybrid era we are in can definitely get us there.”