Health professionals from the municipality of Natal and the entire metropolitan region of the capital are participating in training to face the new coronavirus. During the training, participants received information on how to operate with the Telehealth process, a fundamental tool to assist professionals in diagnoses. The activity is the result of a partnership between the Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health (LAIS) of UFRN, State Secretariat of Public Health (Sesap / RN), and city halls of the cities of Grande Natal.

21 health professionals were trained, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, speech therapists, dentists and physiotherapists, from the municipalities of Natal, Parnamirim, Macaíba, São Gonçalo do Amarante and Extremoz.

The Telehealth Program is an action that seeks to improve the quality of care and primary care in the Unified Health System (SUS), integrating teaching and service through information technology tools, which offer conditions to promote Tele-assistance and Tele-education. And in this pandemic moment, it is essential to spread information and knowledge among professionals who work to fight the virus. In practice, the service is part of the so-called “health 4.0”, where health services and solutions are positively impacted by the advancement of technology, making it possible to optimize tasks, increase efficiency and quality in the provision of services, revolutionizing the relationship between professionals and patients.

According to Professor Higor Morais, coordinator of the Telehealth Center in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, after training, professionals will be able to use the system, which offers tele-guidance and remote regulation. “The most important thing is the integration between health professionals from different regions of RN, with the supervision of the work team that will accompany this moment of crisis”, he stressed.

The initiative is one of the results of the meeting that took place on the 17th of this month between researchers from LAIS, representatives from Sesap / RN and the Municipal Secretariats of cities in the Metropolitan region of Natal. At the time, strategies were also defined to be adopted with technology solutions to bring more training to professionals and also information for civil society.

Among the referrals, there are also the implementation of direct communication channels with the population and the establishment of situation rooms for monitoring the pandemic.

Also according to the Telehealth team, it is important to note that for the course, all precautionary recommendations for the safety of the participants were followed, as directed by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), such as detachment among each student, wearing masks and cleaning the place and the activity participants.

Covid-19
According to data from the Ministry of Health, until this Monday (23), 1,891 cases and 34 deaths from the new coronavirus were registered. All states in Brazil have cases of the disease, community transmission (when it is not possible to know how the patient was infected) is already a reality across the country. However, not all regions have the same level of transmission. The Ministry of Health reinforces that the population must participate in the collective effort to face the virus.

Telehealth
The Interstate Center for Telessaúde RN / PB is an organ linked to the Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (LAIS / UFRN), and works on the development of actions that aim to train health professionals to deal with technologies in the Health area.

LAIS coordinator, professor Ricardo Valentim highlighted the importance of using technologies in the process of continuous training of health professionals. “This is an important movement, since we have health professionals being qualified through technologies developed by LAIS to fight the coronavirus, promoting the possibility of remote teleconsulting among these professionals”, he said.