Abstract
Telemedicine is the remote practice of medicine through the use of information and communication technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases. In this narrative review, we illustrate how telemedicine technologies are increasingly integrated into pediatric infectious disease programs with the aim of facilitating access to specialist care and reducing costs. There is widespread use of telemedicine for the management of acute and chronic infectious diseases, particularly in countries in which the majority of the population lives in rural areas, far from third-level hospital centers located in large urban centers. Obviously, telemedicine is also used in developed countries, and its importance has been further increased recently given the COVID-19 pandemic. It has many advantages for patients, such as saving time, money and working hours, and reducing cancelled appointments and delays, while there are also many advantages for doctors, allowing collaborations with specialists and continuous updating. Among the disadvantages are the limitation in carrying out an objective examination, which is particularly important for children under 2 years of age, and the need for cutting-edge technology and reliable connectivity. Telemedicine increasingly represents the future and the beginning of a new healthcare system that also will redefine medical care for the treatment of infectious diseases, both acute and chronic. However, the majority of the experience has involved adults, and its validation in pediatric care, as well as its application in real-life practices, are urgently needed.
Highlights
Telemedicine, known as telehealth, is the remote practice of medicine through the use of information and communication technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases [1]
One of the advantages of following patients with acute infections by telemedicine is to reduce the durations of hospitalization and antibiotic therapy, as demonstrated by a 2008 US retrospective study conducted on three infectious diseases: community-acquired pneumonia, febrile neutropenia and skin-wound infections [20]
Given the poverty of these populations, access to mobile phones is often limited, and there are considerable difficulties in contacting mothers, as well as poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy in a significant percentage of the population. Another example of the use of telemedicine to improve HIV management is based on the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model, in which nonmedical staff are trained via distance learning with targeted lectures and the discussion of clinical cases by university specialists
Summary
Telemedicine, known as telehealth, is the remote practice of medicine through the use of information and communication technologies for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases [1]. The study showed that the latter lasted longer (50 min versus 40 min by telephone) but allowed the doctor to postpone a face-to-face evaluation while achieving a similar rate of patient satisfaction [10] Following these first evaluations, the rapid evolution of information and communication technology awakened interest in telemedicine as a reliable and usable solution in the diagnostic–therapeutic field [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Approaches incorporate new technologies, such as high-definition cameras, encryption software and electronic stethoscopes, otoscopes and ophthalmoscopes to treat a large number of both acute and chronic infections [4,5,6,7] In this narrative review, we will illustrate how telemedicine technologies are increasingly integrated into pediatric infectious-disease programs with the aim of facilitating access to specialist care and reducing costs [18]. The keywords used were “telemedicine” AND “infection” OR “infectious disease” OR “antibiotic” OR “antimicrobial” OR “COVID” OR “SARS-CoV-2” AND “children” OR “paediatric” OR “pediatric”
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