Healthcare Minister Azir Aliu announced a program to use telemedicine to help reduce the shortage of doctors. Aliu said that Macedonia can still use the many doctors who moved out of the country by having them work with patients online.

We have many doctors, good specialist, in the diaspora. They operate at a high level and are valued in the countries they work in. We don’t want this human capital to remain unused, said Minister Aliu.

Two pilot cases are already in place – doctors from Skopje are providing advice and services in the remote public healthcare centers in Debar and Delcevo. “After these pilot tests, the second stage will focus on standardization of telemedicine procedures, and expanding the system to use doctors who work outside of the country”, said Aliu.