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LetterLETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Open Access

Telehealth: An Important Player During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Naureen Akber Ali and Adeel Khoja
Ochsner Journal June 2020, 20 (2) 113-114; DOI: https://doi.org/10.31486/toj.20.0039
Naureen Akber Ali
1School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
MSc, BScN
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Adeel Khoja
2Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
3Department of Cardiology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
MSc, MBBS
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TO THE EDITOR

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across national and international borders, causing severe illness in countries throughout the world and creating a serious public health crisis.1,2 The number of ill patients and those suspected to be infected has burdened hospitals and medical equipment supply chains.3 One way to mitigate some of the logistics problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic is to transition to telehealth services when possible.

Augmenting healthcare systems with telehealth services is feasible, and telemedicine gives practitioners a way to offer medical support to patients during this global pandemic.3 The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several state public health agencies, many European Union countries, and China have modified existing rules and regulations to permit the increase in utilization of telehealth services and have promoted telehealth as part of the response to the novel coronavirus.3-6

Telehealth services can be provided through devices such as computers, smartphones, and tablets.4 Doctor-patient interaction can still occur despite social distancing and stay-at-home orders,5 and telehealth services eliminate the exposure risk inherent in an in-person clinic visit. Telehealth can be used to monitor patients recovering from COVID-19 after their discharge from the hospital.7 Telehealth also provides a way to reach populations that have low or no access to care.

Telehealth has also become important in the provision of mental health services,4 including the provision of services for clinical teams at high risk of mental distress because of exposure to infected patients. Such distress can cause burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression that can ultimately have a deleterious impact on a health system's capacity to deliver services during this time of crisis.8,9 In response to COVID-19, several telehealth mental health services were implemented in China, including counseling, supervision, training, and psychoeducation for frontline clinicians, patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and their families, and policemen and security guards.4

Transitioning to telehealth services when possible can also help conserve medical supplies.3

Public health agencies, governments, stakeholders, and policymakers must introduce this technology throughout the world, including the South Asia regions where only 0.7 to 2.8 critical care beds per 100,000 population are available and where diagnostic and critical care facilities are limited.10,11

Telehealth services are an efficient way to provide people with remote access to quality healthcare services without increasing the risk of transmitting infection. The COVID-19 pandemic may be the impetus for governments and regulatory agencies to adopt telehealth services and integrate them into existing health systems globally.

  • ©2020 by the author(s); Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)

©2020 by the author(s); licensee Ochsner Journal, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, LA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) that permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

REFERENCES

  1. 1.↵
    1. Heymann DL
    . Data sharing and outbreaks: best practice exemplified. Lancet. 2020 Feb 15;395(10223):469-470. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30184-7.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
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    1. Del Rio C,
    2. Malani PN
    . COVID-19—new insights on a rapidly changing epidemic. JAMA. 2020 Feb 28. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.3072.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  3. 3.↵
    1. Rockwell KM,
    2. Gilroy AS
    . Leveraging telemedicine during the COVID-19 outbreak. HCP Live. www.mdmag.com/medical-news/telemedicine-during-covid-19-outbreak. Published March 20, 2020. Accessed May 12, 2020.
  4. 4.↵
    1. Zhou X,
    2. Snoswell CL,
    3. Harding LE,
    4. Bambling M,
    5. Edirippulige S,
    6. Bai X
    . The role of telehealth in reducing the mental health burden from COVID-19. Telemed J E Health. 2020 Apr;26(4):377-379. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2020.0068.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  5. 5.↵
    Interim guidance for healthcare facilities: preparing for community transmission of COVID-19 in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/healthcare-facilities/guidance-hcf.html. Updated February 29, 2020. Accessed March 3, 2020.
  6. 6.↵
    1. Goldberg M
    . Washington Department of Health briefs senate on status of COVID-19. State of Reform. stateofreform.com/issues/public-health-2/2020/03/washington-department-of-health-briefs-senate-on-covid-19-updates. Published March 2, 2020. Accessed March 3, 2020.
  7. 7.↵
    1. Imenokhoeva M
    . Telehealth in the time of COVID-19. MobiHealthNews. www.mobihealthnews.com/news/europe/telehealth-time-covid-19. Published March 31, 2020. Accessed May 12, 2020.
  8. 8.↵
    1. García‐Lizana F,
    2. Muñoz‐Mayorga I
    . Telemedicine for depression: a systematic review. Perspect Psychiatr Care. 2010 Apr;46(2):119-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6163.2010.00247.x.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  9. 9.↵
    1. Maunder RG
    . Was SARS a mental health catastrophe? Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2009 Jul-Aug;31(4):316-7. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2009.04.004.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  10. 10.↵
    1. Phua J,
    2. Faruq MO,
    3. Kulkarni AP,
    4. et al.
    Critical care bed capacity in Asian countries and regions. Crit Care Med. 2020 May;48(5):654-662. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000004222.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  11. 11.↵
    1. Bhutta ZA,
    2. Basnyat B,
    3. Saha S,
    4. Laxminarayan R
    . COVID-19 risks and response in South Asia. BMJ. 2020 Mar 25;368:m1190. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1190.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
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Telehealth: An Important Player During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Naureen Akber Ali, Adeel Khoja
Ochsner Journal Jun 2020, 20 (2) 113-114; DOI: 10.31486/toj.20.0039

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Telehealth: An Important Player During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Naureen Akber Ali, Adeel Khoja
Ochsner Journal Jun 2020, 20 (2) 113-114; DOI: 10.31486/toj.20.0039
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