(eng)aging! 2021 Virtual Conference

COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, is a respiratory disease with clinical symptoms including fever, dry cough, fatigue, muscle pain, and shortness of breath. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared it a global pandemic, in which Israel is included. Shortly afterward, Israel imposed restrictions on movement and economic activity. Israel’s lockdown lasted nearly two months, and at its peak people were confined to their homes and violators were fined.
Several research questions are investigated in the current study. First, what healthcare services covered by National Health Insurance, if any, did the public choose to forgo due to the spread of COVID-19? Second, what factors explain the use of traditional and online healthcare services as against forgoing these services in the course of a medical emergency? Third and similarly, what connection is there between forgoing these healthcare services and socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, exposure to COVID-19, and perceived risk of developing the illness?

The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the ongoing process of implementing telemedicine services in Poland. Although many interrelated projects – e-health, m-health, telecare and telemedicine – have been gradually introduced to Polish public health policies since the 2000s, it was the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that accelerated the process and emphasized the need for quick and effective solutions. This paper represents a part of a wider research project on “Application of New Technologies in Social Policies” in Poland and focuses solely on public health.

The Covid-19 pandemic imprisoned us all at home and made it significantly more difficult to access health care for the long-term and acutely ill patients. Due to the risk of infection, there has been a growing interest in telemedicine services provided remotely over the Internet. The experience with Covid-19 has dramatically increased awareness of the possibilities of telemedicine among physicians, and hopefully also among governments and insurance companies. Remote examinations can serve as a filter and help reduce the number of visits to the general practitioner or to hospital outpatient clinics. Telemedicine can also remotely monitor chronically ill patients at home or in nursing homes so that caregivers can help them in a timely manner, for example in the event of a fall or sudden deterioration. This session should take an advantage of recent unfortunate experience with the virus and discuss the process of implementing telemedicine in healthcare in Visegrad countries and to share experience and good practices in this field. Older people would benefit from digitalisation of healthcare systems significantly.