September 2 was a special date for the Telemedicine University Network (Rute), project coordinated by RNP and integrated to the Brazil Telehealth Networks program. The initiative, which integrates and connects public university and teaching hospitals in Brazil, celebrated the mark of over 100 telemedicine and telehealth units created, approved and fully operational throughout Brazil.

On the occasion, four telemedicine units were opened – at the Hospital Center of Santo Andre (CHMSA - SP), at the Agamenon Magalhães Hospital (HAM - Recife), at the Ana Nery Hospital (HAN - Salvador) and at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia Foundation in Pará (Belém) – which, along with the 97 previously existing ones, surpass the 100 functioning units in the five regions of the country.

The joint opening ceremony was held at the 3rd edition of the RNP Forum, which this year had e-Health as its theme and gathered specialists at the San Marco Hotel, in Brasília. Rute National Coordinator Luiz Ary Messina (photo) spearheaded the event. “Now, our big challenge is in the municipalities, that must be connected by RNP until the end of the year”, he stated, presenting to everyone RNP new publication-catalog, entitled “Rute 100”, about the first 100 units of telehealth and the network impact.

About Rute

Rute covered 19 institutions throughout Brazi in 2006, when the deployment started. The initiative took its first steps, for the education and health research development in the country. Today, the network is formed by over 150 university and teaching hospitals, with 100 fully operational units in every state of Brazil. It is considered one of the world’s greatest initiatives and, in 2012, it received the qualification of the best practice in telemedicine in Latin America and Caribbean, by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). 

Among other goals, through RNP, the network connects and integrates every public university and teaching hospital, and supports the videoconferences and web conferences performance, the analysis of diagnostic, the formative second opinion, and permanent education. It also allows the integration of the units with state and municipal health secretariats, basic health units and hospitals in the countryside.

“Encouraging these actions enables the education and research development, in addition to facilitating health care in the country. The practice through networks facilitates the integration of experts, health professionals, residents and students in discussion about new treatment and procedures methodologies to be adopted”, Luiz Ary Messina states.

The network also stimulates the integration and the collaboration between health professionals through Special Interest Group (SIGs). Currently, there are 57 SIGs promoting debates, clinical cases discussions, long-distance classes and diagnosis, in various medical specialties and subspecialties, such as Cardiology, Ophthalmology and Dermatology, Leprosy, Sports Medicine, Pediatric Rheumatology, among others. Every year, around 600 videoconferences and web conferences sessions are performed, with over 150 participating institutions, including some from Latin America and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Rute was launched by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), supported by the Ministries of Health (MH) and Education (MEC), by the Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (Finep) and by the Brazilian Hospital Services S.A. (EBSERH). The initiative also excelled in the international scenario, in 2013, due to a never before seen action in Brazil: the first broadcasting of four surgeries in 4k (resolution four times superior to full HD), in real time and simultaneously, directly from Brazil to the United States, from four telemedicine units in university hospitals from Porto Alegre (HCPA/UFRGS), Espírito Santo (HUCAM/UFES) and Rio Grande do Norte (HUOL/UFRN), and the Faculty of Dentistry, University of São Paulo (USP). Students, researchers and health professionals not only watched the surgery in detail, since the heart was the size of a human being on screen, but also discussed it with the specialists in real time.