Ohlstein Jason F, Ahmed Omar G, Garner Jordan, Takashima Masayoshi
Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, St. Luke's University Hospital, Bethlehem, USA.
Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, USA.
Cureus. 2021 Dec 29;13(12):e20794. doi: 10.7759/cureus.20794. eCollection 2021 Dec.
One year ago, shortly after the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we published our initial experience with telemedicine. We showed that during the early pandemic, there was a dramatic shift to telemedicine and that 70% of our patients would decline telemedicine in favor of an in-person visit. As clinical limitations and stay-at-home orders relaxed, we sought to define how we have used telemedicine since. After the initial month of the pandemic, our utilization of telemedicine fell to an average of only 5% of visits over the past year. Nearly 80% of all telemedicine visits were routine follow-up visits, with its usage being unaffected by local policy and pandemic surges. The usefulness and applications of telemedicine have been well described; however, after our initial reliance on telemedicine, its use has been minimal. Moving forward, attention will need to focus on innovation and expanding comprehensive virtual examinations for otolaryngology to fully embrace this technology.
一年前，在2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行开始后不久，我们发表了关于远程医疗的初步经验。我们发现，在大流行初期，远程医疗出现了显著转变，70%的患者会拒绝远程医疗而选择亲自就诊。随着临床限制和居家令的放宽，我们试图确定自那时以来我们是如何使用远程医疗的。在大流行的第一个月之后，我们对远程医疗的利用率在过去一年中降至平均仅5%的就诊率。几乎80%的远程医疗就诊都是常规随访就诊，其使用不受当地政策和疫情激增的影响。远程医疗的实用性和应用已经得到了很好的描述；然而，在我们最初依赖远程医疗之后，其使用一直很少。展望未来，需要将注意力集中在创新和扩大耳鼻喉科的全面虚拟检查上，以充分接受这项技术。
