Use of Telemedicine in the Management of Viral Respiratory Disease Epidemics (SARS, MERS, Influenza, and COVID-19): A Review

Abstract

Introduction: The epidemic of viral respiratory diseases in the last 20 years has affected many people around the world. In these situations, telemedicine may reduce unnecessary contacts and the risk of exposure to infection. This study aimed to review the papers performed to manage viral respiratory disease epidemics using telemedicine. Material and Methods: The PubMed and Scopus databases were searched in May 2020 for this systematic review study. Data were extracted from the final included papers based on the author, country, type of epidemic, telemedicine modality, telecommunication method, objective, participants, clinical outcome, cost, and satisfaction. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data.Results: From 365 retrieved papers, 18 papers were included. Most of the papers were done in the US and China (67%). Half of the papers were done during the COVID-19 pandemic. Real-time modality was used in 78% of the papers. The telecommunication method in half of the papers was internet-based. Patients’ management and treatment was the main objective of the six papers. In 81% of the teleconsultation papers, the consultation was performed between patients and healthcare providers. The clinical outcome of all papers showed that telemedicine was successful in the management of viral respiratory disease epidemics. Cost and satisfaction outcomes were considered in a few papers. Conclusion: There is considerable evidence to show that telemedicine is a useful and convenient method to manage and control viral respiratory disease epidemics. Therefore, countries should pay special attention to telemedicine to control the current pandemic and future epidemics and use it extensively.

Applications and Challenges of Telemedicine: Privacy-Preservation as a Case Study

“…Problems such as the high cost of implementation, lack of a legal framework including patient privacy policies, and health professional authentication are also major obstacles to wide acceptance and use of telemedicine. 24 - 26 …”

“…Based on this information, the doctors will be able to adjust the drugs and doses according to the needs of each patient. 24,59 Today, despite the increasing prevalence of all types of cancer worldwide, there are inadequate treatments, physicians and surgeons, especially in rural areas. [60][61][62] Therefore, using distance care technology for diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care increases access to cancer care and improves physician education.…”

“…Problems such as the high cost of implementation, lack of a legal framework including patient privacy policies, and health professional authentication are also major obstacles to wide acceptance and use of telemedicine. [24][25][26] In addition to the mentioned obstacles, compliance with ethical requirements and considerations such as compilation of comprehensive and global guidelines for recording and using patients' information, the competence of the treatment staff, the liability of medical malpractice, obtaining informed consent, providing insurance for damages, training providers, user-friendly technology, reliability, availability and the existence of high quality software are essential. 4,84 We categorize the advantages and disadvantages of telemedicine in Table 2.…”

“…18 Several papers have explained the benefits of telemedicine; for example, quick access to medical care especially in remote areas, 2 reducing the cost of multiple visits to the doctor, 19,20 and prolonged hospitalizations. 21,22 Some research has been focused on the challenges and limitations in telemedicine such as data security and privacy, 23,24 the cost of infrastructure, 2,3 lack of available equipment such as high-speed internet, 25,26 data accuracy, 4,6 and misdiagnosis. 3,23 Since one of the most important problems in telemedicine is preserving the privacy of patients' information, several papers have investigated and provided solutions for this problem such as Blockchain based, [27][28][29][30] Graph based, [31][32][33][34] Watermarking algorithms, [35][36][37][38] Identity based, 39,40 Homomorphic, 41 and Attribute based signature.…”