A snapshot a day keeps the doctor away

The Internet, as we know, has many uses. The company Dansk Telemedicin uses the Internet to help patients receive better treatment – and the public sector to make considerable savings.

The number of patients with chronic wounds is growing steadily. The treatment is expensive and requires close follow-up and constant adjustment in a team effort between district nurses, health care assistants, doctors, surgical appliance makers, wound nurses, dieticians, chiropodists and others.

Up until a few years ago, it was only possible to check on the progress of a patient's wound by admitting him or her to the hospital or transporting the patient to the doctor. Dansk Telemedicin therefore developed an Internet-based wound journal which enables doctors and carers to keep an eye on the development of the wound while the patient is at home. By means of a password, this gives the patient ant its relatives the possibility to add the elements they find important to the wound journal.

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Treatment decided on the basis of photos
The collaboration takes place via the Internet, electronic paper and mobile phone. The journal works by the district nurse or wound nurse taking a photo of the wound on a mobile phone every time they visit the patient. The photo is sent to the doctor who can follow the development of the wound using a specially developed software system.

The doctor decides on the basis of this what the further treatment should be. The Internet-based wound journals not only mean that the doctor can follow the development of the wound more closely – they also mean fewer admissions and amputations and lower personnel resources and transport costs.

Difficult to convince the public sector
Dansk Telemedicin started out with four patients in 2005. Today, around 1,800 registered patients use the system. Within two years, Dansk Telemedicin hopes to have 50 per cent of the Danish market, amounting to some 50,000 patients with chronic wounds.

Dansk Telemedicin uses the 'Software as a Service' business model, which means that the company hires out the necessary software through an annual subscription, typically to regions, municipalities and hospitals. Dansk Telemedicin develops and updates the programs and administers them on its own servers.

From the customers' point of view, it makes financial sense. It will typically cost less than EUR 1,340 to equip a wound nurse with a mobile phone and the necessary know-how, while the overall costs of the traditional wound treatment can easily add up to EUR 6,720.

In spite of the obvious financial advantage for customers, Dansk Telemedicin has not always found it easy to sell its IT solution. Hospitals receive grants based on the number of treatments carried out. The cost of the distance treatment of wounds is far lower than if the patient comes to the hospital. But the hospital stands to lose money if it uses telemedicine, in spite of the streamlining of the system. It has therefore proved a challenge for the company to convince hospitals of the benefits of using the wound journal.