ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Telemedicine, or the use of CIT (Communication and Information Technology) to deliver and/or share medical remote assistance and knowledge, is of paramount importance, mainly in large countries, with social and economic disparities, as Brazil, by means of teleconferences, webconferences, webcasts and use of a wide range of interactive technologies, helping activities of assistance and professional health education. One of the activities provided by our RUTE (University Network of Telemedicine), institution backed by our RNP (National Network of Research) with interaction of five ministries (Health, Defense, Culture, Education and Science & Technology), is the creation of SIGs (Special Interest Groups), from diverse health areas, linked directly to assistance and education at teaching health institutions (mainly hospitals), since 2007. Nowadays, 78 SIGs, with a great range of different subjects are registered, each with at least one coordination institution and three other participating institutions.

Description: The SIG ENDOPED created in the second semester of 2011, with association of eight institutions, leaded by Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), has been performing monthly meetings with one hour of duration. The subject of each meeting is chosen and coordinated by different member institutions in order to stimulate full participation of all members. Since its creation, there were 47 meetings, about 8 or 9 each year, ranging from discussion of selected clinical cases, updates of clinical treatment protocols, or other subjects of interest in the field of Pediatric Endocrinology. Today there are 28 centers distributed in all five regions of the country, and many discussions started at SIG meetings were useful to help updating protocols and national guidelines on further propositions to our Medical Societies (Brazilian Pediatric Society, Endocrinology and Metabolism Brazilian Society and Diabetes Brazilian Society) and Health Ministry. In the last two years, contacts with institutions in other countries (India and South Africa) have been made in order to internationalize our SIG.

Conclusion: SIG ENDOPED is a very dynamic, interactive, inclusive and convenient forum for discussion on themes of high interest in the Pediatric Endocrinology field, improving assistance, health professional education and even stimulating research,providing remote live contact between the associate institutions. Recent contacts are preparing the group for international activities.