On the eve of World Hepatitis C Day, Juan Ternes and Pablo ParadaDoctors from the Department of Gastroenterology of the Pontevedra University Hospital Complex were invited to share with their peers national and international level Details “Galicia Hepatitis C Elimination Plan”and the experience of the health districts of Pontevedra and Osalnes in managing this virus.
within the framework The 8th National Viral Hepatitis Conferencehe The 16th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Others and meetings fast track citydiscussed the specificities of the Ministry of Health FOCUS project originally developed in Pontevedra and its participation in designated programs, considering one of the most ambitious countries in the world for its technological promise.
One from Pontevedra and Osalnes has been selected Best Hepatitis C Unit in Spain for the third consecutive time. It was the first country to implement age-opportunistic screening for hepatitis C in both hospital care and primary care in May.This means that every time a person aged between 50 and 59 is analyzed, they are automatically asked if they are likely to enter screening and receive a total of 63,000 admissions and 83 positive.
Dr. Juan Turnes, head of the Digestive Services Department and co-author of the document, called the implementation of the program a success: “In just a few months, all Galician regions started running age screening Check, this system is difficult to replicate in other countries or communities because Galicia’s strong digital capabilitieswhich allows it to work equally and automatically in all areas of health,” he explains.
Artificial Intelligence and FOCUS Project
Age screening is one of the key points of the program that has generated the most interest at our borders, in part because of its resource and time efficiency. Dr. Juan Turnes said, “The interesting thing at the conference is not the number of confirmed cases, but that we are the only country in the world using PCR technology.” collection Diagnostic testing at scale at reduced cost, here’s what we’ve learned from the pandemic. ”
The head of digestive services also highlighted the technical capabilities for implementing the request system: “The target population was identified in an automated way at the scale of the health system and individual hospitals,” he added.Screenings in Galicia will be provided Important information To estimate the incidence of this virus in other parts of Spain, key data Since it is an asymptomatic disease, it is known 25% of undiagnosed patients have cirrhosis.
25% of undiagnosed patients have cirrhosis
Some of the actions envisaged in the Galicia strategy have previously been carried out as pilot projects in the regions of Pontevedra and Osarnes, emphasizing, among other measures, the technical commitment to actively search for patients who, despite being diagnosed, have not received treatment . their treatment. Pablo Parada explains the peculiarities of the FOCUS project at Amsterdam’s “Fast Track City”, Starting in 2019, andThe health districts of Pontevedra and Osalnes, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, demonstrated the usefulness of artificial intelligence and big data in detecting these patients.
“FOCUS was a pilot project in our health sector and once we achieved good results, we decided to expand this innovative technology through the Galician Hepatitis C Elimination Program, in which we use technology to detect Patients, everything is possible because in Galicia this information is digitalized and unified,” explains Dr. Pablo Parada.The Health District of Pontevedra and Osalnes encourages participation in hepatitis C virus screening, which almost completely recovered number of cases Fast treatment without side effects worth taking note of.Current screening includes people born between 1963 and 1974 1954 to 1963 and 1974 to 1983.