As from September 2010, a regional network of skin wound telecare will start operating in the city of Caen in the department of Calvados (administrative region of Lower Normandy, Northwestern France), reports daily French newspaper 'Ouest France'. The pilot is in line with the French Government's hospital reform and it is planned to be extended to more cities.
"The network will allow providing remote wound care to a patient who can stay at home." said Dr. Dompmartin from the dermatology unit of the Caen University Hospital Centre (CHU, in French), the mind behind the project along with Dr. Blanchere, the head of the telemedicine network. "For the first year of operation, we will choose volunteering patients with chronic wounds: leg ulcers, bedsores and diabetic foot."
About twenty freelance nurses wishing to participate will be trained and provided with the transmission material (imaging and sound). "They will take care of 10 patients each. Thanks to a 3G mobile phone equipped with specific software, they will film the wounds to be treated." The remote consultation will take place over the Internet with an expert nurse holding a university degree in wound care management. The expert nurses will have their decisions validated every week by a dermatology specialist, and a video conference will be held once a week.
Concretely, the freelance nurses will visit the patients staying at home. They will film the wounds and convey the film to the expert nurses to obtain their opinion. "After the two [nurses] have discussed, the freelance nurse makes a picture which will be stored in a way to compare [the wound] from one consultation to another." Dr Blanchere explained. The reports and prescriptions aimed at the patients' general practitioners will be channelled through a secure messaging tool named 'Apicrypt'.
The motive behind the establishment of the network in Lower Normandy is to not only to facilitate the return home of the patients and thus to cut costs, but also to "overcome the lack of doctors and nurses in the region" Dr Blancher said. "This will prevent [both] emergency room overcrowding and trips [to the hospital] for the patient. The general practitioner is at the centre of the doctor-city-hospital system." he concluded.