Health Mobility, Telemedicine, and Local Areas

Abstract

Telemedicine solutions help improve the delivery of and access to healthcare services. The recent pandemic has given a burst to the use of telemedicine services, allowing to overcome or set aside, at least temporarily, some of the difficulties which usually hamper the implementation of innovative services. It has also spurred a new attention to the issues of access to healthcare services, and to the role telemedicine services could play in overcoming or reducing the physical distance between patients and healthcare premises. This study makes a preliminary step to sharpen the topics for the Piedmont region. Data retrieved from the Regional Health Information System are used to profile the health mobility pattern in the regional local areas, through a set of spatial performance indicators. A few hypotheses of the possible impact of telemedicine on health mobility are formulated and their impact is investigated in an exploratory analysis of the regional health flows.