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Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana

Print version ISSN 1814-5469On-line version ISSN 2308-0531

Rev. Fac. Med. Hum. vol.21 no.2 Lima Apr-Jun 2021

http://dx.doi.org/10.25176/rfmh.v21i2.2947 

Letter

Telemedicine: a viable option in times of covid-19?

Kevin Flores-Lovon1  , Medical student

Dayana Ticona1  , Medical student

1. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa. Arequipa-Perú.

Mr. Editor:

We have read with great interest the article “A new coronavirus, a new disease: COVID-19” by Pareja, et. al. where we observe that the repercussions bringing with pandemic, evidence the limited experience we have1. Telemedicine (TM) has become a technological tool to provide medical care and a tool with great potential in settings where the infrastructure is intact and doctors are available for care2. In this way, exposure is minimized, taking into account that number of infections occurred in hospitals was gargantuan1.

Even before the arrival of COVID-19, in several countries and especially in the United States, TM was used to bring palliative care to the homes of patients with chronic and stable diseases3, associated with high satisfaction of patients and medical staff4. Due to the current state of emergency, they are an essential tool to support the clinical needs of the health system5. There is a willingness of patients to use TM, however, there are still barriers as well as the lack of digital literacy and the unwillingness of doctors to adopt TM, as seen in Australia6.

TM allows an exhaustive medical history to be carried out, but it also has limitations such as physical examination and auxiliary exams7. Physician must have the judgment to determinate who needs swab testing, prioritizing the risk population. However, most countries lack a regulatory framework to authorize, integrate and reimburse telemedicine services, even in emergency situations8.

Peru has not implemented a strategy or operational plan to guide its service providers to change the system such as teleconsultations, nor a data exchange mechanism with decentralized epidemiological surveillance.

COVID-19 is a call to adopt gradual changes in the TM implementation in our country, since it shows an important utility in cases of disasters and emergencies. This challenge must be addressed and collaborated to promote its safe and evidence-based use.

REFERENCES

1. Portnoy J, Waller M, Elliott T. Telemedicine in the Era of COVID-19.J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract [Internet] 2020. 1-3 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221321982030249X?via%3DihubLinks ]

2. Hollander JE, Carr BG. Virtually perfect? Telemedicine for covid-19. N Engl J Med [Internet]. 2020:1-3 https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp2003539Links ]

3. Calton B, Abedini N, Fratkin M. Telemedicine in the Time of Coronavirus. J Pain Symptom Manage [Internet]. 2020;S0885392420301706. https://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(20)30170-6/pdfLinks ]

4. Greenhalgh T, Wherton J, Shaw S, Morrison C. Video consultations for covid-19. BMJ [Internet] 2020; 368: m998 https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m998Links ]

5. Reeves JJ, Hollandsworth HM, Torriani FJ, Taplitz R, Abeles S, Tai-Seale M, et al. Rapid Response to COVID-19: Health Informatics Support for Outbreak Management in an Academic Health System. J Am Med Inform Assoc [Internet] 2020. Disponible en: https://academic.oup.com/jamia/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jamia/ocaa037/5811358Links ]

6. Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Anthony C Smith, Emma Thomas, Centaine L Snoswell, Helen Haydon, Ateev Mehrotra, Jane Clemensen, Liam J Caffery, [Internet] 2020 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1357633X20916567Links ]

7. Implementing Telemedicine in Response to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic | Journal of Urology [Internet] 2020 https://www.auajournals.org/doi/10.1097/JU.0000000000001033Links ]

8. Ohannessian R, Duong TA, Odone A. Global Telemedicine Implementation and Integration Within Health Systems to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call to Action. JMIR Public Health Surveill [Internet] 2020; 6(2):1-4, e18810. https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e18810/Links ]

Financing sources: The article has been funded by the authors.

Received: April 13, 2020; Accepted: February 19, 2021

Correspondence: Dayana Ticona Tiña Address: Calle Ayacucho 118, Cercado, Arequipa, Perú Telephone: 952 374 000 E-mail:dticonat@unsa.edu.pe

Authorship contributions: The authors participated in the generation, collection of information, writing and final version of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Creative Commons License Este es un artículo publicado en acceso abierto bajo una licencia Creative Commons