Nuove forme di prossimità nella relazione di cura a distanza. Il caso della teleassistenza nelle malattie croniche

[Machine translation] Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, remote assistance has spread widely and has increased the capacity for intervention. The recent literature on this topic has shown both the expansion of the fields of remote care intervention — which until 2019 were mostly concentrated in the fields of cardiology, endocrinology and radiology — and the effectiveness of the new methods of remote visits in terms of the satisfaction of healthcare professionals and patients. Remote healthcare can be declined for all intents and purposes as a new form of communication between sick people and healthcare personnel (which includes doctors, nurses and volunteers): in 2020 it was recognized by the NHS as a health benefit. The doctor's code of ethics,, among other things, the rule that the dialogue between the treating subject and the sick person is part of the therapeutic path to be undertaken in a shared manner. A dialogue that, in practice, has been and is often hampered by the reality of hospitals and poorly distributed care centers. Precisely in this regard, the usual use of new communication technologies, facilitates and does not hinder a medical consultation, which instead of being based exclusively on contact, is also based on connection. The new forms of remote communication and monitoring seem to have a positive impact on the patient's health, for different reasons but two in particular. The first, more obvious from a clinical perspective, lies in the advantage of having an objective and timely monitoring of the patient's condition and intervening before a serious relapse, inviting the patient for example, to a precautionary hospitalization or to a change in therapeutic intervention. The second concerns the epistemically active role that the patient is invited to play. In a long-distance therapeutic relationship,, in fact, the patient tends to reposition himself as a collaborator, promoter, “therapeutic ally”: the indirect, daily presence of healthcare personnel — tangible in the various forms of monitoring devices,, real technological “offshoots” of the healthcare assistant — it promotes positive motivational drives, reassuring for patients. In turn, the self-induced sense of security and trust — despite the physical frailty associated with illness and aging processes — seems to promote new and personalized forms, of prevention, self-awareness and commitment, which are reflected in practices of creativity, self-care and pro-sociality.