The Telemedicine service provided by the Courbaril portal connects patients with healthcare professionals, and also connects the physicians to each other. A new medical practice has been established using this computer-based tool.

It enables:

• Diagnosing,
• High-risk patient follow-up,
• Preparation of a treatment program,
• Prescription of medication or care.

Telemedicine allows healthcare professionals to do 5 things:

• Teleconsultation: a doctor talks to a patient remotely (may or may not be accompanied by a healthcare professional) and makes a diagnosis,
• Tele-expertise: a doctor consults the expertise of colleagues on medical information related to a patient,
• Medical telemonitoring: a doctor monitors and diagnoses a patient using their medical data,
• Medical teleassistance: a doctor assists a colleague remotely through medical action,
• Medical regulation: doctors who are part of the SAMU (French System of Emergency Medical Assistance) (15) establish a primary diagnosis over the phone in order to give the most appropriate response for the patient at a later stage.

Advantages:

• Improves patient follow-up at home,
• An efficient tool when there is a lack of medical resources in certain geographic areas,
• Easy access to patient care,
• Enables patient follow-up by healthcare professionals who are sometimes far from their geographic area,
• Controls costs and saves time,
• Quality of diagnosing as information is shared between healthcare professionals.