Against the backdrop of experience with the past pandemic months, there is an increasing desire among family doctors to be able to communicate with colleagues and/or patients via privacy-compliant messaging apps.

Such asynchronous, i.e. time-delayed, telemedical approaches have the advantage that the communication partners do not have to be available at the same time. If questions are discussed between physicians on the occasion of a consultation with a patient (so-called consil) and this consultation is supplemented by a specific form (transfer form), efficiency is also increased.

In the ASTRaL project specific asynchronous consults with rheumatologists, ophthalmologists and dermatologists are considered.

The aim of the project is to evaluate asynchronous telemedicine procedures implemented for the purpose of improving access to specialized care in rural areas. The participating research practices will be equipped with hardware and software that can be used for communication between the respective specialties in accordance with data protection regulations.

Questions from the general practitioners to specialists in the fields of rheumatology and dermatology are to be sent by means of images and transfer forms. For the telemedical application in ophthalmology, it is planned that a medical assistant will be trained on an optical coherence tomography device, so that he/she can operate the device for routine examinations, such as measuring eye pressure, and send the corresponding images to the ophthalmologists.

This project is supported by the Care Guarantee Fund of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Youth, Family and Senior Citizens of the State of Schleswig-Holstein:

Project duration: 01.01.2022 - 31.12.2024
Funding amount: 380.667,84 €