Quality assessment of a second opinion telemedicine service

The use of technology advancements and telemedicine has definitely contributed to reducing the communication gap between patients and doctors. Lately, a telemedicine program is applied in Greece aiming at the improvement of primary health services offered to Greek citizens, especially of remote and rural areas. The program is supported by the Greek National Health Service, while it is fully funded and run by Vodafone Greece. Vodafone offers doctors of 100 remote areas of continental Greece and Greek islands, portable medical equipment, supplies, electronic equipment and internet access to enable them to monitor their patients. It also offers them potential advisory support from doctors of the Athens Medical Center. The differentiation of this program from the vast majority of others lies in the fact that the end-user of the program is not the patients themselves. In accordance with the will of Vodafone to evaluate and improve, if necessary, the telemedicine services provided, we carried out a field research, the results of which are presented in what follows. Our objective was not only to find out the overall degree of satisfaction of both the participating doctors and patients, but also to compare their views. Overall, participants admitted that Vodafone Telemedicine Program results in more efficient primary healthcare services and improves the patients' quality of life. The degree of satisfaction of both the involved doctors and patients is very high and everyone wishes the continuation or, even better, the extension of the program through the inclusion of additional tests-examinations and its application to more remote areas of Greece.