Tele-neurology during the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Solution for Bridging the Healthcare Gap

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand, patients were unable to be examined, to receive follow-up treatments, or to receive medication in the normal ways that they previously had. As a result, Srinagarind Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine at Khon Kaen University established a home delivery system for those patients, who needed to be continuously treated. Two types of services were made available: 1) Patients were able to make a request on the Facebook page of ‘Drug delivery’ or on the Line application: @Dr. Somsak, and 2) the physicians phoned the patients in order to assess symptoms and to provide treatment based on the symptoms and severity of the disease. Regarding neurological patients in Thailand, most patients; such as people with epilepsy (PWE) are most often treated by general practitioners in community hospitals or by internist or pediatricians in provincial hospitals. Only a small percentage of PWE are actually treated by neurologists or pediatric neurologists. The Epilepsy Clinic of Srinagarind Hospital has, therefore, developed a service system for the out-patient department in which the physicians call the patients in order to assess their symptoms and to provide continued treatment to those individuals with PWE so that status epilepticus, which arises from drug deficiency, can be prevented. Consequently, the Integrated Epilepsy Research Group has developed a tele-medicine system for PWE, who are treated in the Epilepsy Clinic. Moreover, the newly developed service system will continue to be used to treat patients with neurological diseases in order to resolve the problem of gaining access to neurological doctors. Keywords: Epilepsy clinic, Neurological disease, Tele-medicine