Great thing, telemedicine. From a distance, now, a lot can be done. But intervening is not easy, even if remote monitoring is a reality on the diagnostic and control front. So what? Then it is necessary to find targeted solutions, both in terms of the “target” organs of the treatment and in terms of the conditions in which one finds oneself operating.
From telemedicine for consultation to treatment
In times of nascent and permanent conflicts like the ones we are experiencing, protecting health, especially sight, becomes an even more difficult need to satisfy. Because to add complexity there are many elements that in some way hinder treatment opportunities. Let’s just think about what we have been experiencing for some time with the war in Ukraine. In the country, according to estimates, there are still many people who remain in extremely difficult conditions, of which almost 4 million require treatment.
Telemedicine in these contexts has revolutionized access to consultancy, but wartime medicine highlights the limits of purely consultative assistance. In the case of time-critical conditions, expertise that simply provides recommendations may arrive too late to be effective. What is needed is a transition to therapeutic telemedicine, that is, models in which expert knowledge crosses borders while therapeutic authority remains rooted locally.
In this sense comes a research that appeared in Nature, to which Andrea Cusumano, ophthalmologist and professor of diseases of the visual system and Marco Lombardo, PhD at the Department of Experimental Medicine of the University of Rome Tor Vergata contributed.
The teletherapeutic corridors
The research introduces the concept of “teletherapy corridors”: partnerships of structured clinics for transnational teleguided laser treatments, designed to guarantee access to priority therapies when conventional referral systems become unsafe or inaccessible. And here is a concrete example, reported by Cusumano himself.
“On December 3, 2025, our Italian and Ukrainian teams implemented a teleguided transnational workflow for retinal laser therapy that connected Kiev and Rome. Two patients were treated in Kiev and one in Rome for a retinal tear and a branch retinal vein occlusion with peripheral ischemia. All procedures were completed as expected, without unexpected deviations, and patients expressed great satisfaction with a model that seamlessly integrated the skills distributed in local assistance are evident”.
Organized virtual structures
The essence is that the corridors must be planned and organised, with a logic that goes beyond the situation in the Eastern European country. These are therefore not improvised digital comparisons, but as regulated healthcare infrastructures, characterized by operational protocols, clarity in credentials, data protection and prospective evaluation. Their aim is not to replace local doctors, but to extend their reach under conditions of systemic stress. Cusumano reports again:
“Beyond Ukraine, such architectures are likely to become essential wherever the distribution of health care is destabilized, whether by armed conflict, climate disasters, or extreme geographic isolation. Ophthalmology offers a particularly clear example; several retinal diseases progress rapidly to irreversible vision loss, but remain highly treatable if addressed promptly. Such interventions require precision and often benefit from the judgment of a subspecialist, resources that armed conflict can suddenly render inaccessible.”
