Teleradiology Adoption During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Radiologist's Perspective

Abstract

In Mach 2020, WHO christened the highly infectious disease caused by novel Coronavirus (2019 – nCoV or SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China, as COVID-19 and declared it as a pandemic. In the following weeks, the disease has swept rapidly across most of the countries of the world. With the global health emergency that we are currently facing, Teleradiology adoption increased tremendously amongst the radiologists, who are playing the cruciate role in combating this deadly disease by imaging and predicting early diagnosis. As the pandemic has brought new challenges that necessitate radiologist to adopt routine off-site reporting, this allows the continuity of imaging services to the patients without sacrificing the quality of care. It also helps to maintain their workloads from a remote location and diminish radiologist exposure to infections. In this article, the authors review examples of current scope and applications of teleradiology practice during pandemic emerge. In addition, the future impact and natural extension of these techniques in radiology practice are discussed.

Medicina en la era digital: alcances y perspectivas

“…La teleradiología también juega un papel significativo en los departamentos de emergencias pediátricas, donde la evaluación de imágenes de teleradiología ha demostrado mejorar el manejo y la consulta de pacientes (Bucak et al, 2022). Durante la pandemia de COVID-19, la teleradiología ha sido fundamental para superar los efectos de los confinamientos y abordar la falta de personal y experiencia adecuados, destacando su papel crítico en situaciones de crisis (Al-Dahery et al, 2023;Pankhania, 2020).…”

Radiologists’ experiences and perceptions regarding the use of teleradiology in South Africa

“…However, teleradiology was used to preserve scarce resources for COVID-19 patients, take healthcare to the people and protect healthcare workers and patients from contracting the virus. 12 , 13 The pandemic created an environment for re-examining the factors that enabled or inhibited the uptake of teleradiology in both the public and private sectors.…”