A Review on Telepharmacy Services during Covid-19 Pandemic in ASEAN Countries

Abstract

This scoping review's goal is to provide an overview of how telepharmacy was used during the COVID-19 epidemic. Four topics will be addressed in this review: (1) What various telepharmacy activities were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What difficulties did the implementation of telehealth programs encounter? What were pharmacies' (3) tactics for overcoming difficulties, and what were some of their creative approaches to putting telepharmacy into practice? Using the PubMed Central database and Google searches, a literature search was done to find articles about the deployment of telepharmacy that were published after March 2020. A set of predetermined criteria were used to determine whether or not to include or exclude each article. Virtual consultations, medication delivery to patients' homes, and patient education were the telepharmacy programs that were most frequently seen. Major obstacles to the deployment of telepharmacy included limited access to technology, lack of digital access, and low levels of digital literacy. This study aims to make people aware of the existence of telepharmacy, how it works, and how it is relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic in the ASEAN countries, where telepharmacy makes healthcare services more easily attainable to people in remote communities which should beneficial to people with comorbidities, especially in elderly people.