The telemedicine service could appear in Moldova next year if the authorities borrow good practices from Romania, said IDEP Moldova program director Iurie Calestru. He told IPN that Moldova should see what Romania did and what it can implement itself and the issue could be then debated in Parliament and could be followed by a bill.
According to Iurie Calestru, specialists of Romanian universities have designed a telemedicine curriculum and will also have a faculty of telemedicine to train specialists to provide such services probably from next year. Moldova should focus primarily on legislation, curriculum, medical consultation and installation of kits.
“Telemedicine does not imply only videoconferencing on Zoom or Google Meet. It implies a set of kits. For example, in Greece they installed particular specialized kits for persons from remote areas who have health problems and the given patients can receive medical consultation from a distance without needing to cover several hundred kilometers. This practice will be implemented in Romania too. I talked to representatives of the Government and Parliament of Romania. They are ready to offer us free good practices for harmonizing the legislation on telemedicine. It is a new area that has a lot of dimensions. It goes to remote connection specialized cameras, micro-cameras, kits that measure remotely particular indicators set by doctors for patients and many other moments that are combined with personalized medicine,” he explained.
Iurie Calestru noted that the telemedicine services are of a higher quality and more accessible. They enable to reach persons from disfavored environments and remote areas. Telemedicine implies much lower costs for patients and consists of services provided by multidisciplinary specialists.
“We now aim to help absorb grants for innovative medical services referring to telemedicine. In its last meeting, the UN General Assembly approved the creation of a special fund for the pandemics to come. We are having discussions with the European Commission as regards the extension of the opportunities of the EU4Health programs to which the Republic of Moldova can get access and can develop telemedicine through these,” he stated.
Iurie Calestru noted that a government and parliamentary multidisciplinary team should be constituted to transpose the legislation and good piracies of Romania. Discussions are now held with educational institutions for designing a curriculum. The universities are ready to introduce telemedicine in their curriculum. After the relevant legal framework is adopted in Moldova, the country is to join the EU4Health and European Digital Identity programs. As an EU candidate country, Moldova should be able to align itself with the European policies.
Recently, Radio Moldova interviewed a number of decision makers in Chisinau and Bucharest about the project “Complementary telemedicine laboratory in the Romanian space – Chisinau- Bucharest”. The speakers identified opportunities for creating a modern telemedicine laboratory in Chisinau and in Bucharest in the partner institutions – “Nicolae Testemițanu” University in Moldova and “Carol Davila” University in Bucharest.
