TELEMEDICINE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE CARE OF THE POPULATION

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.1594352409049

• Palavras-chave: Pandemic, Telemedicine, Psychology, Advantages, Effectiveness.

• Keywords: Pandemic, Telemedicine, Psychology, Advantages, Effectiveness.

• Abstract:

  Telemedicine refers to the use of technological resources to offer medical consultations remotely, mainly through video calls, messages and emails. Before the pandemic, virtual care was 13,000 patients, and as of April 2020 it increased exponentially to 1.7 million according to data provided by Medicare and Medicaid medical centers (1). According to Jian Zhou, telemedicine worked as a filter to classify people with COVID-19, suspected cases, patients with chronic diseases and healthy people (2); with a safe, organized and easily accessible care approach. The advantages of this method were rapid and constant care, reduced risk of contagion, reduced workload of medical staff and, above all, adequate use of available resources for infected people. (3–5)
  The pandemic also generated an important psychological impact, in such a way that psychological support (telepsychology) was growing and also research regarding the effectiveness of the treatments provided in this area, which indicated that care works the same as in-person care and with similar benefits (6.7). An observational, cross-sectional and quantitative study was carried out by collecting the number of services in the area of medicine and psychology during the month of May 2020 until October 2021; indicating that at the beginning of the telemedicine service, 235 people were served and at the end, 11,050 were served, data that denotes the need to opt for this modality.