Challenge

The Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta Oncology Network is a healthcare and assistance system dedicated to people suffering from tumorous diseases, which allows patients to be followed by a medical team composed of professionals from different specializations.
However, hospitals rarely have all the specialists on site because healthcare structures have been moving towards greater specialization, focusing on specific oncological dimensions.
For this reason, the Piedmont-Valle d’Aosta Oncology Network expressed the need to have a videoconferencing system to connect its oncology facilities scattered throughout the region.

The Piedmont Region therefore allocated funds for the setting-up of rooms for remote oncological counseling, thus connecting doctors from different health centers.
The Vercelli Health Center (ASL) was among the first to use the funds allocated to this project.

Solution

One of the constraints of the Oncology Network for setting up these videoconferencing rooms was that they should “speak the same language”; in other words, all ASLs (local health centers) should use the same software, i.e. Cisco WebEx licenses..
Given such stringent technological constraints, the Vercelli ASL looked for Cisco partners in Italy with Gold certificates for this kind of solution, and Italtel was therefore selected as a suitable partner for working with Public Administration tools (MEPA and CONSIP).

The Vercelli ASL explained its needs, indicating the technological constraints and outlining the project. Italtel promptly replied, offering hardware, software and professional services. Italtel’s services during this first planning stage were particularly appreciated.

Once Italtel was selected as the supplier, the installation and activation of the videoconferencing system was also a straightforward process, from the logistics aspect of identifying the materials to the professional consultancy aspect, on-site installation, configuration, and testing. To carry out the testing, Italtel provided a videoconferencing system at its Settimo Milanese headquarters for remote connection, as there weren’t any active rooms in other ASL facilities at the time. Italtel has also supervised the training of the medical and nursing staff who will use the videoconferencing system.

This training made it possible to achieve the goal of making users autonomous, so as not to require the involvement of ASL technical staff for activating video-conferences. Subsequently, the Vercelli ASL launched the system which is currently available to the clinical staff. The system can be used to offer oncological consultations across different hospitals, benefiting, for instance, patients who need to go to another health facility for clinical reasons or due to change of residence. In fact, due to greater hospital specialization, there is now a higher patient mobility and interchangeability.