Aim: This study was conducted to reveal the problems of the telemedicine sector and to provide suggestions for its use in the future.
Introduction: Telemedicine technologies are a form of
medical care and training that can counteract the spread of a COVID-19 epidemic
by eliminating direct contact of both medical workers with patients and medical
workers and patients with each other. The COVID-19 pandemic was a global threat
that affected the economy as well as the health system in India. The majority
of rural and non-urban areas were inaccessible and did not have adequate access
to all health services. Technologies like telemedicine services were important
in this case. These telehealth services, which served a sizable portion of the
populace, attempted to restore the health system at the lowest possible cost.
Telemedicine doctors could counsel on patients' emergency situations while
lightening the load on secondary hospitals. The guidelines should be revised to
address the weaknesses and establish an ongoing system of evaluation to permit
future improvements in the health system. Telemedicine technologies will
continue to grow and be adopted by more healthcare practitioners and patients
in a wide variety of forms, and these practice guidelines will be a key factor
for handling emergency health conditions in the future.
Materials and Methods: It was a record-based,
cross-sectional study done in the Telemedicine Center at IPGMER, Kolkata, from
1st January to 31st January 2022. Patients were interrogated by simple
questionnaires over the telephone. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR) for COVID-19 antibody-positive or suspected
COVID-19-positive patients was included in the study. Patients related to
vaccines or enquiring about other health-related problems were excluded.
Results: In 92 patients, the mean age was 48.75 ± 4 and
there were about equal no. of male and female patients. Among comorbidities,
the number of hypertensive, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and
diabetes mellitus were higher. The duration of symptoms is longer in these
comorbid patients. Among antibiotics, azithromycin was the most prescribed. The
percentage of encounters with antibiotics was much higher than the World Health
Organization (WHO) standard. The percentage of drugs from the essential drug
list was about the same as the WHO standard. The average consultation time was
lower than 7 minutes of the WHO standard.
This study showed that comorbidities like hypertension,
diabetes mellitus, COPD, etc., affected the duration and severity of COVID-19
symptoms. There were overuses of antibiotics as well as other drugs more than
WHO indicators but consultation time was less than WHO indicators. More
patients were satisfied with this service than in previous studies. People with
poor health receive health advice to improve their quality of life. Telemedicine
services can reduce the risk of self-medication by prescribing medications
appropriately and promptly.
Conclusion: Telemedicine services can reduce the risk of
self-medication by prescribing medications appropriately and promptly. There
are some problems in this study, in which medications were prescribed based on
symptoms of hearing loss without a physical examination. Artificial
intelligence-based technologies can modify the services. Finally, by overcoming
all obstacles, this service should be a part of the “triage” plan in the health
of the future.
Author (s) Details
Ranit Bag
Department of Pharmacology, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical
College and Hospital, Howrah, West Bengal, India.
Malabika Mondal
Department of Pharmacology, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Soumik Mukherjee
Department of Pharmacology, Diamond Harbour Government Medical College and
Hospital, Diamond Harbour, West Bengal, India.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/prrat/v7/2559
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