Telemedicine services launched in Bulgaria

Telemedicine services have been launched in Bulgaria. Two high-tech stations have been piloted in the coastal city of Bourgas, with the help of which doctors examine elderly people remotely, without patients having to go to the hospital.

Dr. Lachezar Ivanov from the state hospital in Bourgas is now carrying out remote examinations in a specially equipped office at the Emergency Department.

“Not everything in medicine requires being examined on the spot. It remains to be seen whether it will be a challenge to combine it with our work in the shock room at the ER," said Dr. Lachezar Ivanov from the University Hospital in Bourgas.

From next week, the social services in Bourgas will be equipped with mobile stations and will be able to go around to addresses of elderly people.

"There is a blood glucose measuring machine, which is very important to us in the Emergency Department. We have a pulse oximeter, which is also very important to us. There is a thermometer, there is even a device that allows us, by putting both hands, to check the rhythm of the patient," added Dr. Lachezar Ivanov.

88-year-old Anna Stoycheva was among the first patients to be examined remotely. She has difficulty moving, finds it impossible to go to the hospital alone, and complained that her limbs were numb.

"These are patients who have chronic diseases, these are elderly people, most of them, they are lonely, who in conditions of influenza epidemic, harsh weather conditions, remoteness have difficulties to conduct quality consultations with specialists," said Dimitar Nikolov, mayor of Bourgas Municipality.

The caretaker health minister, who came to Bourgas to see the effectiveness of the new system, announced that telemedicine staff would be trained at the medical faculty in the seaside city.