The Institute of Cardiology is the main Polish clinical center of cardiology and cardiosurgery with the highest reference score. The clinical activity in the Institute focuses on interventional treatment of acute coronary syndromes, diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease and cardiac insufficiency as well as acquired and congenital heart defects. The clinical activity also includes diagnosing and treating arterial hypertension and arrhythmia. The procedures performed at the Institute include cardiosurgery and heart transplantation as well as imaging diagnostics.

The Institute has 386 beds in its clinics and wards on Alpejska Street and on Spartańska Street, Warsaw.

The yearly activity of the Institute looks as follows:

• 20000 patients hospitalized,
• 2000 surgeries,
• 50000 out-patients,
• 10000 procedures performed by the hemodynamic lab,
• 30000 imaging examinations done by the Radiology Department

The Institute of Cardiology as a research and development unit implements new technologies and trains medical staff. In order to accomplish those tasks it has researched the option of using telemedicine in treatment of patients. Few projects concerning this issue have been already introduced. In order to extent the accessibility to medical consultations and more effectively use human resources, the need to merge those projects arose. The creation of Telemedicine Center is a solution to such a necessity.

From medical point of view, the project is to decrease the mortality and morbidity of patients with acute ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and with acute no ST Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome (NSTE-ACS) while optimizing the costs of treatment and rehabilitation.

The recommended way to treat STEMI is angioplasty. In order to recognize and treat it properly, ambulance staff needs to have an access to 12 canals ECG device and a possibility to consult with a specialist in order to confirm the diagnosis and decide about medical procedure required. The project will allow and facilitate such a communication. Concerning the patients with z NSTE-ACS the Project will enable the early treatment those in a high risk group.

The use of telemedicine will allow providing a cardiology or cardiosurgery treatment faster and will provide wider access to very specialist knowledge.

In order to get an access to knowledge and experience connected with the implementation of IT solutions in medicine, the Institute of Cardiology has established cooperation with a Norwegian partner, Exponor Tromso AS, which is a member of Exponsor Consortium and a unit associated with clinics, universities and commercial entities operating in telemedicine industry. Exponor closely cooperates with the Norwegian Telemedicine Center, which was indicated by WHO as a center cooperating with this organization in the field of telemedicine. Its experience in the implementation of telemedical solutions (94 projects completed) guarantees the success of the project of the Institute of Cardiology. The partnership is sanctioned by the agreement signed on 22 November 2005, regarding the cooperation on the transfer of knowledge and experience, which shall ensure proper execution of the project, in compliance with medical practices, established assumptions and the latest achievements of medical technology. Moreover, the Institute also signed letters of intent related to the cooperation with Polish hospitals, mainly from the Mazovian Province.

Although telemedicine is one of the newest fields of medicine, its development is extremely fast - as there are some undeniable economic, technical and ethical reasons which persuade the medical environment to support its development. Telemedicine means optimization of the costs of health care and enables all the patients, even those from small towns, to be diagnosed by a top-class specialist - as this is not always ensured by traditional medical services. The project to establish a Telemedicine Center at the Institute of Cardiology complies with a global tendency for a development of telemedicine and closer co-operation between entities on the medical market.

The implementation of the Project will lead to:

• development and training of heart diseases experts through transfer of telemedicine knowledge and experience
• stronger international cooperation in the field of telemedicine:
• exchange of experience between the units using telemedicine
• constant education in the field of telemedicine
• patients' cardiological surveillance at home
• number and length of control hospitalizations: 10 days
• rehabilitation after Acute Coronary Syndrome: 20%

Teleconsultaion Center in numbers:

1. New 11 tele-services in cardiology
2. We carry out research in the field of ECG screening
3. We create a telemedical network
4. The Centre has more 400 telemedicine devices for patients
5. Over 400 registered users
6. Center performed more than 150,000 consultations for more than 22,000 patients
7. We conduct scientific research using a telemedicine platform

CardioLogic System
Teleconsultations for cardiac surgery.

1. Teleconsultation service – medical council between experts
2. Full registration of the consultation process
3. Transmission of DICOM studies - an innovative transmission system
4. Remote qualification of patients for cardiac surgery
5. Innovation for the patient - remote setting of hospitalisation dates during current hospitalisation
6. New channel of patient acquisition - in some medical procedures even more than 50% of the procedures performed come from teleconsultation

CardioLogic System
Teleconsultations for cardiac surgery.

1. More than 10 years of uninterrupted operation
2. More than 5,000 teleconsultations of cardiac surgery
3. 11 cooperating entities
4. Team of 13 cardiac surgeons and 10 cardiologists performing consultations
5. Wide range of substantive research