IntroductionInnovative health technologies, like telemedicine, offer advantageous telediagnostic apps that can improve the health care of populations in remote regions. However, evidence on how these developments can enhance universal coverage for electrocardiographic (ECG) diagnosis to support a cardiovascular disease prevention program is limited. The utility of telemedicine for attaining universal coverage for ECG diagnosis according to the national cardiovascular disease prevention program in Paraguay was investigated.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey included adults (aged 19 to 80 years) and children (aged 1 to 18 years) with a medical prescription. The study was carried out by the Telemedicine Unit to evaluate the utility of a telemedicine net for a countrywide detection and prevention program for cardiovascular disease. The results obtained by the tele-ECG net, which was implemented in sixty public hospitals countrywide, were analyzed and used to verify adherence to the cardiovascular prevention program.ResultsBetween 2014 and 2019, 331,418 remote ECG diagnoses were performed. Of these, eighty-two percent (n = 270,539) were in adults and eighteen percent (n = 60,879) were in children. Among the adult diagnoses, the majority (52%) were pathological and included sinus bradycardia (13%), right bundle branch block (6%), left ventricular hypertrophy (5%), and ventricle repolarization disorder (5%). Among the children, only twenty percent of diagnoses pathological and included sinus bradycardia (11%) and sinus tachycardia (4%). The mean rate of adherence to the prevention program was 38.2 per 1,000 diagnoses performed.ConclusionsThe results showed that telemedicine can significantly enhance coverage for universal ECG diagnosis to support cardiovascular disease prevention and health programs. However, before carrying out the systematic implementation of such a program contextualization using the regional epidemiological profile must be performed.
Strong Hearts, healthy communities: a rural community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program
