Coronavirus (COVID-19): remote care through telehealth

Cochrane Special Collection: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/collections/doi/SC000043/full¹

Background: On the 11^th of March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic.² Since then healthcare worldwide has had to rise to the challenge of how to deliver healthcare safely to people with health needs without overtly exposing them to this virus. Telehealth is used to describe interventions delivered over distance and is made up of the following three components. First the patient provides data, second the information is transferred electronically and then third the clinician provides feedback.³ Cochrane has put together a special collection highlighting all the evidence currently summarised in systematic reviews with relevance to telehealth.¹ This will hopefully assist health care providers in knowing the best ways to offer telehealth in order to gain the most benefit.

Clinical Bottom Line: Automated telephone reminders are ideal for improving immunization and screening rates and are also beneficial for people with diabetes and hypertension.⁴ Interactive telemedicine is beneficial again for people with diabetes and will not cause people with heart failure to have a change in their condition and so healthcare for people with both conditions can be managed effectively this way.⁵ A new qualitative review looking at healthcare workers perceptions of using mobile technology has also shown that telehealth can be beneficial not only for patients but also for the workers.⁶

Table 1. Summary of effect of remote care through Telehealth