Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences From Western China.

Zhen Hong,Dong Zhou,Bing Li,Dajiang Li,Weimin Li,Nian Li,Weixi Xiong,Lu Lu,Junhua Li

doi:10.2196/19577

Abstract

Disasters and pandemics pose unique challenges to health care delivery. As health care resources continue to be stretched due to the increasing burden of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine, including tele-education, may be an effective way to rationally allocate medical resources. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a multimodal telemedicine network in Sichuan Province in Western China was activated immediately after the first outbreak in January 2020. The network synergizes a newly established 5G service, a smartphone app, and an existing telemedicine system. Telemedicine was demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, and effective in Western China, and allowed for significant improvements in health care outcomes. The success of telemedicine here may be a useful reference for other parts of the world.

Highlights

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), whose director-general expressed concerns about the “alarming spread and severity” as well as the “alarming levels of inaction” [1]
The outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) were associated with much higher respective case fatality rates (CFRs of 9.6% and 34.4%, respectively), the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more deaths due to the large number of individuals infected
Pandemics and other public health emergencies typically lead to a surge in demand for medical care, which overwhelms local capabilities

Summary

Introduction

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), whose director-general expressed concerns about the “alarming spread and severity” as well as the “alarming levels of inaction” [1]. KEYWORDS COVID-19; coronavirus disease; medical education; pandemics; teleteaching; tele-education; telemedicine Telemedicine can be broadly defined as the use of telecommunications technologies to provide medical information and services.

Results

Conclusion