Still

Montpellier, February 2019.

The geriatrician spends several hours a day alone, sitting in front of the screens located in this strange pratice at the very end of the corridor. Using video equipment, she teleports into the nurses’ trolley of dozens of retirement homes. It guides the care (wounds, bedsores, ulcers and other chronic diseases), receives and interprets examination results from medical laboratories, prescribes palliative treatments and the pharmacology of psychiatric pathologies and senile dementia. She also responds to requests from professionals and participates in decisions to move these fragile patients. She follows hundreds of elderly people and their caregivers. Cheaper and without travelling. Sometimes, when patients are sent to her, she directly takes care of them.
This apparentky well-oiled video, scriptural and human arrangement, however requires some preconditions. A good network coverage, braodband connexion, solid cameras, microphones and computer equipment, the reliability of software, repair, maintenance … and a lot of calm. Posters and medical secretaries must prevent patients and caregivers from staying close to the Dr’s pratice as this may disturb this complex arrangement in which the slightest sizzle, the first disturbance could undermine the quality of this telemedicine.