In a statement released yesterday, Luxembourg's Ministry of Health, the e-Santé Agency and the National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de Santé, CNS) confirmed the number of users, teleconsulations and participants registered to date on digital tools set up in the fight against COVID-19 (coronavirus).
eConsult
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Luxembourg government instructed the eSanté Agency to quickly set up a teleconsultation solution to enable remote consultations between doctors, dentists or midwives and patients. In the current state of emergency, teleconsultation represents a key element in the organisation of the healthcare system during the pandemic in Luxembourg, because it limits travel as well as human-to-human contact and therefore risk of contamination.
The teleconsultation solution, hosted on the eConsult platform, has been running for two weeks. Every day, there has been an increase in the number of appointments between healthcare professionals and patients. According to the Health Ministry, the platform now has almost 600 healthcare professionals and more than 4,000 registered patients; almost 3,000 teleconsultations have already been carried out via the platform.
With the increasing use of this new practice, healthcare professionals as well as patients have reportedly been asking many questions, namely regarding good teleconsultation practices or the operation of the teleconsultation solution. To better answer these questions, the CNS and the eSanté Agency, together with the Health Ministry, the Collège médical, the higher council of healthcare professionals and the association for doctors and dentists (Association des médecins et médecins-dentistes) and for midwives (Association luxembourgeoise des sages-femmes), have implemented several initiatives.
They first developed a joint explanatory document on the specific rules relating to teleconsultation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This document, which is intended for both healthcare professionals and patients, is published on the websites of the entities that contributed to the drafting of the document. They also jointly developed a tutorial for patients which explains, in four parts, how to use the teleconsultation platform. As of Thursday 9 April 2020, patients can access the first two parts of the tutorial on the CNS and eSanté agency websites. The first part of the tutorial provides general information plus information on how to register on the teleconsultation platform, while the second part explains how to make a medical appointment. The third and fourth parts, which will relate to the teleconsultation and post-teleconsultation processes respectively, will be available from Saturday 11 April 2020.
Maela
Moreover, the COVID-19 remote patient monitoring tool, Maela, has been operational throughout Luxembourg since the end of March. Selected on the mandate of the Health Ministry by a committee of experts representing various healthcare stakeholders, this solution has already been deployed in all hospitals, the Centre de convalescence and the Château de Colpach, as well as a centralised platform of the Health Ministry. In this context, the website https://suivicovid.lu/ has been set up, allowing access to the solution in five languages (English, French, Luxembourgish, German and Portuguese).
This device allows remote monitoring of all patients tested positive for COVID-19, including those who are confined at home and those who have just been discharged from hospital. It thus helps limit the spread of the virus and unclogs healthcare structures, while offering patients a safe follow-up by qualified professionals-
From the voluntary enrolment of the patient in this national remote monitoring system (carried out by the hospital at the time of discharge or by the Health Inspectorate after receipt of positive laboratory results), the patient must respond daily to a short medical questionnaire for a period of two weeks. Monitoring, carried out by a team of professionals from the Health Ministry, thus makes it possible to identify a possible need for assistance or a worsening of the patient's situation.
As of Thursday 9 April 2020, 388 patients have been followed up at home by this new tool.
