Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine globally. The current consortium critically examines the telemedicine frameworks, identifies gaps in its implementation and investigates the changes in telemedicine framework/s during COVID-19 across the globe. Streamlining of global public health preparedness framework that is interoperable and allow for collaboration and sharing of resources, in which telemedicine is an integral part of the public health response during outbreaks such as COVID-19, should be pursued. With adequate reinforcement, telemedicine has the potential to act as the "safety-net" of our public health response to an outbreak. Our focus on telemedicine must shift to the developing and under-developing nations, which carry a disproportionate burden of vulnerable communities who are at risk due to COVID-19.

Technology has acted as a great enabler of patient continuity through remote consultation, ongoing monitoring, and patient education using telephone and videoconferencing in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era. The devastating impact of COVID-19 is bound to prevail beyond its current reign. The vulnerable sections of our community, including the elderly, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, those with multiple comorbidities, and immunocompromised patients, endure a relatively higher burden of a pandemic such as COVID-19. The rapid adoption of different technologies across countries, driven by the need to provide continued medical care in the era of social distancing, has catalyzed the penetration of telemedicine. Limiting the exposure of patients, healthcare workers, and systems is critical in controlling the viral spread. Telemedicine offers an opportunity to improve health systems delivery, access, and efficiency. This article critically examines the current telemedicine landscape and challenges in its adoption, toward remote/tele-delivery of care, across various medical specialties. The current consortium provides a roadmap and/or framework, along with recommendations, for telemedicine uptake and implementation in clinical practice during and beyond COVID-19.

Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and robotics may be of potential use in telemedicine and in building capacity to respond to future pandemics beyond the current COVID-19 era. Our international consortium of interdisciplinary experts in clinical medicine, health policy, and telemedicine have identified gaps in uptake and implementation of telemedicine or telehealth across geographics and medical specialties. This paper discusses various artificial intelligence and robotics-assisted telemedicine or telehealth applications during COVID-19 and presents an alternative artificial intelligence assisted telemedicine framework to accelerate the rapid deployment of telemedicine and improve access to quality and cost-effective healthcare. We postulate that the artificial intelligence assisted telemedicine framework would be indispensable in creating futuristic and resilient health systems that can support communities amidst pandemics.

Over the last three to four decades, it has been observed that the average total number of hours of sleep obtained per night by normal individuals have decreased. Concomitantly, global figures indicate that insufficient sleep is associated with serious adverse health and social outcomes. Moreover, insufficient sleep has been linked to seven of the fifteen leading causes of death. Additionally, current evidence suggests that sleep plays a significant role in determining cognitive performance and workplace productivity. There is a great need for a systematic analysis of the economic impact of insufficient sleep, particularly given current evidence that this phenomenon, as well as the poor sleep hygiene practices which produce it, is increasing worldwide. This paper takes the view that health authorities around the world need to raise the general awareness of benefits of sleep. There is considerable scope for research into both the public health impact as well as the macroeconomic consequences of insufficient sleep syndrome (ISS). Additionally, various models which estimate the undiagnosed burden of ISS on the GDP (gross domestic product) are needed to prioritize health issues and to highlight the national policies that are necessary to combat this medical problem. Sleep insufficiency has been declared to be a ‘public health epidemic’; therefore, we propose ISS as a potential noncommunicable disease. This review elaborates on this topic further, exploring the causes and consequences of insufficient sleep, and thus providing a perspective on the policies that are needed as well as the research that will be required to support and justify these policies.

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