Health Review | January – April 2022

The Hospital Unit of Molaoi (H.U.M.) organized telemedicine workshops in remote areas of Laconia province (South Greece), giving citizens the opportunity to undergo specialized medical examinations, free of charge and without moving from their homes, during the SARSCoV-2 virus pandemic. These workshops are aimed at the prevention, the early diagnosis, and the general promotion of Primary Health Care. The implementation of the program was based on the principles of Telemedicine via the use of the advanced technology systems of the Vodafone Foundation. The examinations which took place during the telemedicine work included a brief medical history of each participant, hematological exams, cardiological inspection, vital signs monitoring, and – in the case of women over 45- an assessment of the current status of menopause. Furthermore, a questionnaire was distributed to participants to explore their opinions and views regarding the usefulness of Telemedicine. The study population was selected through geographical criteria and specifically by taking into consideration the kilometer and/or the hourly distance of each rural area from the nearest Health center (primary or secondary). The telemedicine workshops took place on a given date and based on a specific timetable, in accordance with the safety protocols of the National Public Health Organization in Greece (EODY, www.eody.gov.gr), for the CoViD-19 infection. The processing and analysis of the health examinations were done in real-time by specialized Doctors of the Hospital, via the use of telemedicine technologies and the results (along with relevant medical instructions) were delivered personally to each examinee, a few days later. From July 2020 to October 2021, 11 Telemedicine workshops took place and a total of 535 citizens of rural areas, aged 15 to 99 years, were examined. According to the results, the general level of citizens’ health can be considered satisfactory, with only six (6) people requiring emergency health treatment and 10% of those examined, being referred for further health examination on a regular basis. The project has contributed to disease prevention and the creation of an electronic medical record file which in the future will help doctors in these remote areas to have comprehensive monitoring of the health of each resident.

Background: continuing professional education, especially in the healthcare sector, contributes significantly to updating specialized personnel’s know-how and improving their overall professional and interpersonal skills. Nevertheless, it is necessary to be integrated as a broader human resource management strategy, directly and continuously interrelated with parameters such as job satisfaction, motivation, working conditions, interprofessional cooperation, and the quality of the health services provided. Aim: to study health professionals’ attitudes toward continuing professional’s education impact on their relationships with peers and patients and investigate their incentives for participating in it. Method: 185 health professionals, coming from the scientific and administrative staff of two NHS hospitals, took part in a cross-sectional exploratory study from February to April 2020. The participants were asked to complete a structured questionnaire consisting of 38 closed-type questions, which is translated into Greek and weighted accordingly, Participation Reasons Scale (PRS). The statistical analysis of the data collected was carried out with IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 21.0, at the statistical significance level of 0.05 Results: the analysis of the data collected revealed continuing education’s statistically significant positive impact on professional competence and services provided to patients, especially for fixed-term employees (b=0.2, 95%CIb= 0.1-0.3, p=0.025). Additionally, the study participants identified this positive effect as the strongest incentive for participating in such programs (scales’ total score: M= 5,5, SD=1,1, Mdn=5,7). Conclusions: health professionals recognize a variety of incentives to participate in continuing professional education activities, which are associated to varying degrees with their subjective need for work and personal further development.

This study investigated the effectiveness of the "Community Center's Health Program" administered by a Municipal Enterprise aiming to reduce health risk factors (alcohol, smoking, diet, exercise), in 351 participants, implemented during a five-year period (2015-2020). For this purpose, quantitative and qualitative personal record data were examined. According to the results a) alcohol users decreased (- 1.20%), b) smokers decreased (-0.50%) while there was also a tendency for heavy smokers to reduce to 1-10 cigarettes per day, c) percentage of those who systematically exercise decreased while frequency of desired exercise increased (+54.40%) for those who already exercised, d) overall food consumption reduced while there was compliance with dietary guidelines at "sweets" and "salt" categories, e) course of the disease improved in 8 out of 10 disease categories, while within the desired limits remained the Mean of Blood Sugar, Total Cholesterol (-2.50%) and Blood Pressure (Systolic Blood Pressure -0,91%, Diastolic Blood Pressure -1.15%). Overall, health for part of the sample was maintained or improved. The Health Program offers indications as to its effectiveness. It can become, through improvements, an original and competent model providing community health care, filling the education gap, and patient monitoring as a reference to chronic disease management, with potentially positive results for the health system.

The COVID-19 pandemic exhibited an impact on healthcare in all countries, highlighting the need for healthcare systems to be better prepared and to improve the response to health crises and exceptional health-events. The pandemic has not only arisen new crisis-related challenges but also revealed and exacerbated existing structural problems. In Austria, the provision of sufficient protective equipment (in the beginning of the pandemic), capacity planning, shortage of health personnel, and telemedicine were important topics during the pandemic. While Austria has a very well developed health care system by international standards, it became clearer in the course of the crisis that qualified health-personnel in sufficient quantity, in particular, will be a major challenge in the future. Furthermore, the hospitalfocused system should continue to be shifted to the extramural sector, where medically sensible, in order to conserve capacity in the intramural sector. Regional differentiation on one hand and cooperation at the state level on the other hand proved useful during the crisis. In the future, more flexible capacity planning could enable resilient patient care.