A new service launched by Caritas Alba Iulia and the Romanian Vodafone Foundation, under the “Mobile for Good” program

Miercurea-Ciuc, the 29th of October 2014 – Caritas Alba Iulia Association- the branch of Social and Medical Assistance launches a new telemedicine program: “Supervision of patients with cardiovascular problems at home”, which is supported by the Romanian Vodafone Foundation, and it continues to develop the following tele-assistance project: “Being alone at home with mobile phone” for another period of one year.

This year, the Romanian Vodafone Foundation has expanded the number of projects under “Mobile for Good” program, reaching 10 supported cases, with a budget of over 1.600.000 Euro. “We are glad that two of them are carried out with our partners from Caritas Alba Iulia, the association which collaborates with us over two years. The total investment of the Foundation in projects run by Caritas Association is 191.000 Euro for both of the projects – said Angela Galeta, the Director of the Romanian Vodafone Foundation.

The new project was started in August and it consists in providing monitorization of blood pressure and electrocardiogram-based tracking at home for 600 people with cardiovascular diseases from the following counties: Alba, Mures, Hunedoara, Harghita and Covasna. The new service is dedicated to those people who can’t benefit from special health care services because of the large distance from treatment centers or cities, or because of their precarious financial situation.

Blood pressure measurement is made with the help of a blood pressure gauge, which records data and then, these are forwarded to the Caritas medical center by using smartphones. ECG recording is done with a device, which is named HeartView. This is a modern device, with reduced sizes, specially adapted for electrocardiogram recording at the patients’ homes. Data recorded by nurses from Caritas are transmitted via mobile phone to Caritas Medical Centre, where the doctors interpret quickly and accurately the received information, evaluate the condition of the patient and transmit the results back to the patient’s home.

The new Telemedicine project developed by Caritas Alba Iulia, supported by the Romanian Vodafone Foundation has a duration of 12 months and its total value is 82.575 euro, of which 68.000 euro is the fundation of the Romanian Vodafone Foundation.

The second Telemedicine project run by Caritas Alba Iulia from the year 2012 is “Being alone at home with mobile phone”, a project for which the Association received the Mobile for Good award on the 16th Anniversary Gala of the Romanian Vodafone Foundation. “Being alone at home with mobile phone” has 520 elderly persons as beneficiaries, who need home care. The program beneficiaries are people aged between 60 and 90 years, from the following counties: Alba, Covasna, Harghita, Hunedoara and Mures. Vodafone Foundation has offered 520 telephones, equipped with a panic button, which can be used in emergency situations and it can alert social workers in real time.

Telemedicine is recognized and accepted by the medical world, it is growing rapidly, and the results are spectacular. In countries with experience in this field, this type of monitoring has resulted a modification of treatment to 60% of the monitored hypertensive patients. Cardiovascular diseases are ranked as nr.1 as a cause of mortality in Romania. The rate of patients discharged with the diagnosis of diseases of the circulatory system in 2011 was above the EU average, which confirms that telemedicine has an important place in health care system.

Caritas Alba Iulia Association- the branch of Social and Medical Assistance and the Romanian Vodafone Foundation are collaborating over two years in Mobile for Good program, the largest program in Romania, which uses mobile technology to improve people’s lives. Through Mobile for Good program, the Romanian Vodafone Foundation is funding programs for health, volunteer programs, programs for education, programs for prevention of family and school abandonment, programs for social integration of persons with disabilities and others.

The Romanian Vodafone Foundation is a non-governmental organization in Romania with charitable status, it is distinct and independent from the commercial operations of the company, it was founded in 1998. In the 16 years of its activity, the Romanian Vodafone Foundation has funded over 768 programs for children, elderly persons, the disadvantaged and young people with intellectual or physical disabilities. Until now, Vodafone Foundation has invested 17 million Euros in projects run by non-profit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs can be found on the following websites:www.fundatia-vodafone.ro, www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone, http://fundatiavodafone-blog.ro

Contact person: Csaba Fodor-Vanyó, Project manager at Caritas Alba Iulia, Telefon number: 0730-258 163