Telehealth Opportunities in the COVID-19 Pandemic Early Days: What Happened, Did Not Happen, Should Have Happened, and Must Happen in the Near Future?

Abstract

The objective of this communication is to offer a better understanding of the value of telemedicine in health care, particularly its role in creating opportunities for continuity of care to patients in a complex and novel setting as were the circumstances of the early COVID-19 pandemic times. Crisis time is also a time for opportunities. With regard to telehealth, all players (providers, staff, and patients) should be informed about its benefits and should also become familiar with the use of the various telehealth options and this will only be achieved through large information campaigns necessary enriched by local teaching and training programs in both public and private institutions. The final aim is to launch the debate and foster ideas useful throughout the pandemic. This article covers the experiences of physicians as well as health professionals in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), to provide a clearer idea of what has happened and how we can improve it with the possibilities provided by telemedicine, while at the same time to put in evidence that public health systems need to be rethought to provide solutions to situations such as that we are experiencing.

Telehealth and Telecare: A Real-Life Integrated Experience in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It is important to help patients, in particular chronic patients, to take responsibility for their own health status and self-care. 27 The patient and the nurse, together, can identify symptoms as well as manage the physical, emotional, and social impact of the disease, leading to an improved quality of life. In this COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to accelerate the training of patients and caregivers on how to care for this specific disease.…”

The patient experience of telehealth access and clinical encounters in Australian health care during COVID-19: implications for enhancing integrated care

“…Such results highlight gaps towards how well integrated care is promoted in telehealth and suggest a need to better support patient participation in their health care (Thomas et al , 2020). Indeed, when patients are adequately prepared and educated towards self-management and computer literacy, then telehealth has the potential to empower them in managing their health (Amorim et al , 2020).…”

The applications of eHealth technologies in the management of asthma and allergic diseases

“… 79 In many cases, the radical change in practice had to happen without much of the needed preparation or advanced planning. 80 Despite this almost overnight transformation, there are reports that allergic patients' satisfaction with telemedicine during the pandemic was high. A recent study conducted in a Spanish allergy unit, demonstrated that half of the patients that underwent a telephone consultation during the first peak of the pandemic would welcome this practice after the resolution of the epidemiological emergency.…”

“…The most heavily affected countries saw their allergy practices rapidly being converted to telemedicine within days 79 . In many cases, the radical change in practice had to happen without much of the needed preparation or advanced planning 80 . Despite this almost overnight transformation, there are reports that allergic patients' satisfaction with telemedicine during the pandemic was high.…”