COVID-19 and telemedicine: Immediate action required for maintaining healthcare providers well-being

Bobak Moazzami; Niloofar Razavi-Khorasani; Arash Dooghaie Moghadam; Ermia Farokhi; Nima Rezaei

doi:10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104345

COVID-19 and telemedicine: Immediate action required for maintaining healthcare providers well-being

J Clin Virol. 2020 May:126:104345. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104345. Epub 2020 Apr 4.

Authors

Bobak Moazzami¹, Niloofar Razavi-Khorasani¹, Arash Dooghaie Moghadam¹, Ermia Farokhi¹, Nima Rezaei²

Affiliations

¹ Network of Immunity in Infection, Malignancy and Autoimmunity (NIIMA), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran.
² Network of Immunity in Infection, Malignancy and Autoimmunity (NIIMA), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran; Research Center for Immunodefiencies, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: rezaei_nima@tums.ac.ir.

Abstract

The well-being of the health care workforce is the cornerstone of every well-functioning health system. As a result of the pandemic, medical healthcare providers are under an enormous amount of workload pressure along with increased total health expenditures. The overwhelming burden of COVID-19 illness could lead to caregiver burnout. Direct-to-consumer telemedicine can enable patients to connect with their healthcare provider at a distance. This virtual platform could be used by smartphones or webcam-enabled computers and allows physicians to effectively screen patients with early signs of COVID-19 before they reach to hospital.

Keywords: COVID-19; Causes; Epidemiology; Telemedicine; Triage.

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections* / diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Health Personnel*
Humans
Internet
Pandemics*
Pneumonia, Viral* / diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2
Smartphone
Telemedicine*