In the current health crisis caused by Covid-19, telemedicine has become a great health care strategy in the world.
CURRENT SITUATION
Currently, the COVID-19 disease is undoubtedly the greatest challenge facing humanity. Although estimates indicate that up to 70% of the world’s population will be infected with this virus, strict social distancing measures remain the only option to avoid the saturation and collapse of medical services around the world. Distance is the resource that, until today, guarantees us to be able to defeat this pandemic.
At this time, health centers, clinics and hospitals allocate all of their resources, both human and material, for the care of patients infected with Covid-19. However, the rest of the diseases do not stop and patients with other diseases also demand attention from health specialists. This means that all these patients require medical attention that can solve their problem without the risk of exposing them to potential contagion. This is where the invention of telemedicine comes into play. By definition, this practice is characterized by remote medical care and is currently the safest option to approach a health professional.
COVID-19 CHANGES THE EQUATION
However, in the current health crisis, telemedicine becomes a great health care strategy. And this is because, the more queries can be resolved from home, there will be less saturation of hospital services and, therefore, a reduction in the spread of the virus.
Among the most frequent consultations are elderly people with mobility problems, people with chronic diseases that require timely monitoring, children with infectious pictures, and women with prenatal check-ups, among many others.
All of them belong to the risk groups to present complications if they are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. With the use of telemedicine, they will be able to be sure of being cared for from home and with the certainty that there is an expert on the other side of the camera who is available, hears them when they require it and gives them confidence with an attentive monitoring of their condition of health. In addition, this new idea of telemedicine in times of the coronavirus plays an extremely important role, triage; That is, those patients who present symptoms suggestive of the disease can be evaluated and classified using medical scales in order to guide those who must go to a hospital urgently and thus have better control and management to prevent the infection to spread.
A TOOL FOR THE FUTURE
In short, telemedicine is a fundamental tool in this age of distancing. Although various ailments will always require a face-to-face assessment, after the pandemic many doctors will opt for remote medicine to monitor patients, rapid consultations, interpretation of results, and so on.
Over time and as technology advances and offers us more tools to work with this modality, specialization courses should be created in parallel focused on perfecting this practice as well as standardized care protocols that guarantee that anyone in the world has access to these services. If a person needs a doctor, they will be able to do it confidently and safely without leaving home.