Almubarak Hussain
Department of Diagnostic Sciences and Oral Biology, College of Dentistry King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2022 Jul;14(Suppl 1):S19-S23. doi: 10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_641_21. Epub 2022 Jul 13.
The 5-year survival rates of oral cancer have not improved significantly since many decades. It is believed that "diagnostic delay" plays a critical role in determining the prognostic outcomes. At present, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to drastic changes within a short period of time and has resulted in many serious consequences at different levels worldwide. Although it is evident that COVID-19 is a major concern when it comes to people's health, it carries with it a message of hope, a desire to survive, and an opportunity to address many unprecedented challenges. This has left the doors wide open to use "telemedicine" as an essential tool to counter the rapid shift in health-care services and to meet the high demands in different health specialties including oral medicine. The aim of this review is to explore the potential roles of telemedicine in early detection of oral cancer and to highlight both the benefits and the limitations of the available applications and technologies. The clinical applications of telemedicine show a great potential in early detection of oral cancer, but the evidence of their effectiveness is still not conclusive. This needs to be investigated, especially in the developing countries where "telemedicine" may prove to be highly valuable in the future.
几十年来，口腔癌的5年生存率并未显著提高。据信，“诊断延迟”在决定预后结果方面起着关键作用。目前，冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行在短时间内导致了巨大变化，并在全球不同层面造成了许多严重后果。尽管很明显，COVID-19在人们的健康方面是一个主要担忧，但它也带来了希望的信息、生存的渴望以及应对许多前所未有的挑战的机会。这为将“远程医疗”作为应对医疗服务迅速转变以及满足包括口腔医学在内的不同健康专业的高需求的重要工具敞开了大门。本综述的目的是探讨远程医疗在口腔癌早期检测中的潜在作用，并强调现有应用和技术的益处与局限性。远程医疗的临床应用在口腔癌早期检测中显示出巨大潜力，但其有效性的证据仍不确凿。这需要进行研究，尤其是在发展中国家，未来“远程医疗”可能会被证明具有很高的价值。
