Mini ReviewAbstract
Telehealth means the usage of telecommunications and virtual technology in facilitating healthcare services in far areas. Telehealth is a multi- phasic system as it serves patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) by providing them with helpful tool for proper healthcare services and giving HCWs the chance to receive training sessions and conducting research. Telehealth proved to be practical in outbreaks and emergency settings as it provides platforms that are easy in usage and accessible for health, education, training, and others. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth services have been of great importance in diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and control of corona virus infection. Telehealth application during COVID-19 pandemic appears in screening and triaging the patients according to their symptoms through phone screening, online tools, mobile applications, and virtual visits to evaluate their conditions, and making the appropriate decisions. Also, telehealth is used in contacts tracing to determine whether they are infectious and need to be quarantined. The importance of telehealth extends to include following up of home isolated patients with mild and moderate symptoms to avoid overcrowding of healthcare facilities, in addition to delivering care by a diverse experienced team to provide and adjust treatment plan. Finally, telehealth sustains continuous care by keeping away from negative outcomes that could occur by delaying due to COVID-19.
Keywords: Telehealth; Healthcare Services; Virtual care; COVID-19; Remote treatment; Pandemic
Mini Review
Telehealth is growing fast and got popular in both developed
and developing countries, especially with the increasing struggle of
communicable and non-communicable diseases in order to reach
the highest impact on health outcomes [1]. Telehealth means the
usage of telecommunications and virtual technology in facilitating
healthcare services in far areas. Telehealth could help both patients
and healthcare workers (HCWs) to deliver comprehensive easily
accessible services, as a step toward universal health coverage
(WHO, 2019). It helps in conveying health service to chronically
ill and elderly while staying at home, as well as HCWs serving at
isolated areas to receive consultations and guidance for diagnosis
and ease referral system [2]. Application of telehealth is focused
in four sectors:
A. real time telehealth used in consultation, diagnosis and
treatment.
B. store-and-forward section used to send electronic medical
records to a specialist to help in cases and to perform services
rather than face-to-face approach.
C. remote patient monitoring and
D. mobile health as online services and mobile phone
applications [3].
Telehealth application helps in many domains as providing
continuous care in chronic diseases and deliver needed information
for them; for example, giving opportunity to deliver educating
messages on diabetes care, healthy lifestyle, mental health
awareness, antenatal and perinatal care. In addition, it has special
importance in low- and middle-income countries as they are in need
for technology in health services to achieve powerful, accurate and
fast health system in diagnosis, treatment and referring system [4].
Telehealth is a multi- phasic system as it serves patients and
HCWs by providing them with helpful tool for proper healthcare
services and giving HCWs the chance to receive training sessions
and conducting research. Also, for undergraduate and postgraduate
medical students, telehealth could give an important help for the
education systems [5]. Telehealth benefits are increasing access to
expertise in difficultly reached geographical areas with no available
medical teams and may be used as the fast first aid, as well as it could
minimize costs of hospitals, as patients can be monitored remotely
even from home. As for barriers especially in developing countries
are the unavailable infrastructure and the resistance of the patients
and HCWs in adaption, together with the legal aspects [6]. Many
countries globally started applying telehealth in providing health
services in their primary healthcare settings in teleconsultation
and distance education in both developing countries as India and
Brazil [7,8] and developed countries with well-established health
systems as Australia and UK [9,10];. On the contrary, the situation
in the East Mediterranean region is still in need for a lot of work
to be done as not many countries implemented telehealth in their
health care settings, though steps are being taken toward applying
it [11].
Telehealth proved to be practical in outbreaks and emergency
settings as it provides platforms that are easy in usage and
accessible for health, education, training and others. Telehealth
facilitates screening patients and treating critically ill ones without
face to face encountering [12]. Since the beginning of COVID-19
pandemic, telehealth services have been of great importance
in diagnosis, prevention, treatment and control of corona virus
infection. Till date, evidence has shown that the best strategy
to prevent spread of COVID-19 infection is the social distancing
and avoiding being exposed. Usage of telehealth in its different
forms as live video conferencing and mobile calls allow medical
professionals to provide medical consultation, patients triaging,
home monitoring during recovery and regular checking of oxygen
level and respiratory rate. It also allows the public to easily ask about
the symptoms and modes of infection control, thus improve public
awareness of the disease [13]. A recent systemic review on the
role of telehealth during COVID-19 outbreak revealed a significant
impact of telehealth in preventing morbidities and avoiding
population who need health services from attending high risk areas
as hospitals. Role of telehealth in management during COVID-19
showed high importance in avoiding direct contact. It minimizes the
hazard of exposure to infection, especially in patients with chronic
diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease and
systemic lupus erythematosus) requiring continuous check-up,
as well as in elderly population as they can access health services
remotely. As regards COVID-19 patients, telehealth is crucial in their
management as it allows integration of several healthcare sectors
for providing high level of care and reaching the best outcome for
them. Also, it is of great benefit in ensuring healthcare providers
safety and minimizing the burden of high flow and exposure on the
health system [14].
Telehealth application during COVID-19 pandemic appears in
screening and triaging the patients according to their symptoms
through phone screening, online tools, mobile applications
and virtual visits to evaluate their conditions, and making the
appropriate decisions. Also, telehealth is used in contacts tracing to
determine whether they are infectious and need to be quarantined.
The importance of telehealth extends to include following up of
home isolated patients with mild and moderate symptoms to avoid
overcrowding of healthcare facilities, in addition to delivering care
by a diverse experienced team to provide and adjust treatment
plan. Finally, telehealth sustains continuous care by keeping
away from negative outcomes that could occur by delaying due to
COVID-19 [15]. COVID-19 pandemic has a massive psychological
effect and impact on patients and their family members, healthcare
providers and populations during lockdown. Telehealth with basic
psychological health service could be very practical in providing
support to the general population, patients, caregivers, and HCWs
through an easy and appropriate way [16,17]. In conclusion,
telehealth could be fundamental for improving healthcare services
and in fighting COVID-19 outbreak all over the globe in all aspects.
References
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