Lessons learned
Experiences with the development of the network have shown that English is so far not widely spoken in the Ukraine context. This hampered the communication with international experts and kept the number of participants and activities at a low level.
Once the telemedicine platform was upgraded to allow the use of Ukrainian and Russian language, the participation rate increased sharply. However, at the same moment international exchange decreased while national exchange increased steadily. The inclusion of district hospitals and the creation of regional networks responded to the need for second opinion of the districts. There is a large community of passive participants (no active contribution to the network) which takes its benefits from the presented cases for their individual continuous medical education. The platform therefore serves as a pool of cases for problem based learning.
One can conclude that Telemedicine supports the Ukrainian health system particularly in the field of continuous medical education, in availing information or expertise to the place where it is requested; and in availing information or expertise to everybody at the same time.
The major aspects to be monitored are the integration of the Telemedicine application in the daily clinical routine process, to assure physical and timely access to the Telemedicine Work Place and to ensure the moderation of the network. The moderation of the discussions and the monitoring of the activities are important aspects directly influencing the quality of interactions and benefits of the network.
