”Baltic Declaration” — telemedicine and mHealth as support for clinical processes in cardiology. The opinion of the Committee of Informatics and Telemedicine of the Polish Society of Cardiology and Telemedicine Clinical Sciences Committee of the PAS

Abstract

For several decades we have observed the development of data transmission technology on an unprecedented scale. With the development of such technology there has also appeared concepts on the use of these solutions in health care systems. Over the last decade telemedicine has been joined by the concept of mHealth, which is based on mobile devices mainly to monitor selected biomedical parameters. On 10 October 2014, during the conference Baltic Electrocardiology Autumn — Telemedicine and Arrhythmia (BEATA), a debate was held with the participation of physicians, politicians, businessmen, and representatives of the Government (Ministry of Health, National Health Fund, Social Insurance Institution) concerning the use of telecardiology services in daily practice. During the meeting issues were discussed such as: telemedicine solutions available throughout the world, analysis of their effectiveness based on clinical trials, funding opportunities, their legal status, and the development perspectives of telecardiology in Poland. The result of the meeting was a document called the “Baltic Declaration”. The declaration is a call for proven and profitable technologies to be introduced into clinical practice. The declaration also indicates that the variety of available technological solutions are merely tools, and the utility of such tools stems not only from their modernity, but also primarily from matching their functionality to the features of the health interventions that are to be improved.