2003

Mission to Tibilisi, Georgia 26-30 September 2003

Georgia is under consideration to become a pilot country for a WHO Telemedicine project. The country has already some experience with telemedicine, especially using a video-conferencing link to different universities in the US. The aim of the mission was to discuss status and plans for telemedicine activities in Georgia and possible telemedicine assistance from WHO.

Georgia is a montanous country in South Caucasus bordering Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. The Georgian language is only spoken of the app. 5 million inhabitants. Most people (adults) have been taught Russian, in addition to English or German. After the independence from the Soviet Union, Georgia has been balancing between the east and west. Over the last years Georgia has suffered from a constant energy crisis. It is not unusual that the electricity is absent several times during the day.  More information on Georgia and health care.

The host of the mission was the WHOs Liasson Officer i Georgia, Rusudan Klimiashvili and the Director of  the National Information Learning Centre (NILC) , Zviad Kirtava. Participants were Dr. Mila Garcia Barbero,  WHO-Euro, Office for integrated health care services and Tove Sørensen WHO-CC.

Saturday 27 September: A workshop on telemedicine was arranged by NILC where all key-players in telemedicine were invited. Around 20-30 people representing various health-, economics- and technical institutions participated in the workshop. There were presentations from WHO-Euro, on Telemedicine in Norway, WHO Collaborating Centre for Telemedicine as well as three presentations on plans for telemedicine in Georgia from the health care needs, technical requirements and legal issues. The presentations were partly made based on information gathered by using the Guidelines for a country feasibility study .   

Monday 29 September the delegation visited two national hospitals, M. Iashvili Children's Hospital and its director Dr. Irakli Sasanita, and O. Godushauri National Medical Centre and the management team. The two national hospitals are under consideration for a telemedicine centre (to receive telemedicine consultations) as patients are being reffered to these hospitals from all parts of the country. 

In the afternoon there was a meeting at the Georgian Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia. The Minister of Health, Dr. Amiran Gamkrelidze welcomed telemedicine in the country and suggested to focus on two areas: a. to support Georgia's development of a primary health care service and  b. to develop a distance training programme for health care personnel who are undergoing  a training programme for primary health care service. Two international funding agencies are already supporting the transformation in the health care system from a specialiced to a primary health care system.

In the evening there was a meeting with the Hospital Restructuring Fund of Georgia by Mr. Teimuraz Dolidze and his team. The office is nominated by the Ministry to provide a more efficient health care sector as Georgia has two many hospitals and hospital-beds.

Summary: Georgia seemes to be willing to develop a telemedicine programme. NST is prepared to assist in the process if needed.  

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