TY - JOUR
AU - Pinnock, Hilary
AU - Murphie, Phyllis
AU - Vogiatzis, Ioannis
AU - Poberezhets, Vitalii
PY - 2022
DA - May
TI - Telemedicine and virtual respiratory care in the era of COVID-19
JO - ERJ Open Research
VL - 8 
IS - 3 
DO - https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00111-2022
AB - The World Health Organization defines telemedicine as ‘an interaction between a health care provider and a patient when the two are separated by distance’. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a dramatic shift to telephone and video consulting for follow up and routine ambulatory care for reasons of infection control. Short Message Service (‘text’) messaging has proved a useful adjunct to remote consulting allowing transfer of photographs and documents. Maintaining non-communicable diseases care is a core component of pandemic preparedness and telemedicine has developed to enable (for example) remote monitoring of sleep apnoea, telemonitoring of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, digital support for asthma self-management, remote delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. There are multiple exemplars of telehealth instigated rapidly to provide care for people with COVID-19, to manage the spread of the pandemic, or to maintain safe routine diagnostic or treatment services. Despite many positive examples of equivalent functionality and safety, there remain questions about the impact of remote delivery of care on rapport and the longer-term impact in patient/professional relationships. Although telehealth has the potential to contribute to universal health coverage by providing cost-effective accessible care, there is a risk of increasing social health inequalities if the ‘digital divide’ excludes those most in need of care. As we emerge from the pandemic, the balance of remote versus face-to-face consulting, and the specific role of digital health in different clinical and healthcare contexts will evolve. What is clear is that telemedicine in one form or another will be part of the ‘new norm’.
PB - ERJ Open Research
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/66c32684-524b-49f4-96d0-198c4dc3aef9
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER