Ease in Emergency Hospital Visits Due to Covid-19 Following Implementation of a Telemedicine Service in Ceará, Brazil

Having chronic back pain did not impact COVID-19 outcome in a low-income population – a retrospective observational study

“…In this case, given that we selected patients visiting an emergency room, it is likely that hypertensive and asthmatic individuals with COVID-19 would seek earlier health care whereas previously healthy individuals might have more commonly being asymptomatic or present a milder disease. Additionally, access to remote orientation probably encouraged those patients with comorbidities to look for medical care [9,[13][14][15][16]. The frequency of COVID-19 symptoms reported in our cohort was similar to that of previous studies with smell/ taste disorders, headache, fever, odynophagia, and cough being the most frequent [16][17][18][19].…”

“…Our COVID patients with CBP were more commonly affected by hypertension and asthma. The increased prevalence of these comorbidities might have been influenced by the fact that such patients, when affected by COVID-19, usually carry a higher chance of developing worse disease [9]. In this case, given that we selected patients visiting an emergency room, it is likely that hypertensive and asthmatic individuals with COVID-19 would seek earlier health care whereas previously healthy individuals might have more commonly being asymptomatic or present a milder disease.…”

“…In addition to the hospital's emergency room (ER), a virtual emergency room (VER) was implemented to care for patients with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 on February 17, 2021, initially in a remote mode, aiming to decrease the need for visits to the ER for those with milder symptoms while at the same time providing patient support in a timely manner. The decision to seek remote assistance was at the discretion of the patient or caregiver, using a specific mobile device, named "Cliente Unimed Fortaleza", providing free daily access to board certified physicians specifically trained for this project, as per regulations of the Associação Médica Brasileira [9].…”

“…In our region, access to outpatient services, including recreational and fitness facilities, was severely restricted. Furthermore, patients were strongly advised to stay at home and not to seek medical care for COVID-19 unless feeling severely ill [5,[7][8][9]. A recent systematic review with meta-analysis found that low back pain prevalence and intensity significantly increased during the COVID-19 lockdown, as compared to the prepandemic period, with women being more frequently involved [10].…”

COVID-19 outbreaks surveillance through text mining applied to electronic health records

“…This pandemic pressured healthcare systems worldwide, both in terms of resources for treatment [ 7 ], vaccine administration [ 8 ], and case monitoring capacity [ 9 ], leading to a significant investment in solutions that could optimize the response to the pandemic. Several initiatives with intensive use of technology were quickly developed in this scenario, ranging from improvements in medical equipment for patient respiratory ventilation [ 10 ] to the extensive use of telemedicine [ 11 ] and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to estimate patient outcomes [ 12 , 13 ]. Among the advancements, the epidemiological surveillance of cases also progressed.…”