Department of Restorative, Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland.
Department of Periodontology and Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, D-55131 Mainz, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 25;19(21):13857. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113857.
Telemedicine has become increasingly important worldwide over the last two decades. As a new field, it became known especially during the COVID-19 pandemic; this review presents fields of activity with special attention to opportunities and risks. Numerous areas of application offer the possibility for broad use in the medical and dental care landscape in diagnostics, therapy, rehabilitation, and decision advice across a spatial distance. Technical and semantic standards are required, and profiles and guidelines are increasingly defined and organized. Medical/dental consultations have been established in various regions around the world as a response to pandemic challenges and have made video and online emergency consultations possible. Telemedicine applications are already regularly used in medical/dental emergencies, regardless of the pandemic situation, both for transport by train and by plane, from which patients benefit. However, legal hurdles are often still unresolved, but infrastructure challenges both for provider, user hard- and software also complicate deployment. Problems are particularly prevalent in the absence of necessary internet coverage or among socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups who cannot afford expensive equipment or do not know how to use the technology. Broad access must be enabled, and hardware and software interfaces and updates must be regularly checked and updated. Telemedicine might also improve access to and delivery of oral and general health care support both for rural and urban areas with low costs. Even though dentistry and many medical specialties are still performed clinically by means of practical/manual examination, there are areas of diagnostics where telemedicine applications can provide good support. Therefore, as conclusions, access, and delivery of telemedicine applications in dentistry and medicine should be expanded and improved to provide access to all population groups.
在过去的二十年中，远程医疗在全球范围内变得越来越重要。作为一个新领域，它在 COVID-19 大流行期间尤其为人所知；这篇综述介绍了具有特殊关注机会和风险的活动领域。许多应用领域为在诊断、治疗、康复和决策咨询方面在医疗和牙科保健领域广泛使用提供了可能性，跨越了空间距离。需要技术和语义标准，并且越来越多地定义和组织配置文件和指南。作为对大流行挑战的回应，世界各地的许多地区已经建立了医疗/牙科咨询，并且已经可以进行视频和在线紧急咨询。无论大流行情况如何，远程医疗应用程序在医疗/牙科紧急情况下已经得到了常规使用，包括通过火车和飞机进行的运输，使患者受益。然而，法律障碍通常仍未得到解决，但是提供者、用户软硬体的基础设施挑战也使部署变得复杂。在缺乏必要的互联网覆盖范围的情况下，问题尤其普遍，或者在社会劣势和弱势群体中，他们负担不起昂贵的设备或不知道如何使用技术。必须实现广泛的接入，并且必须定期检查和更新硬件和软件接口和更新。远程医疗还可以改善农村和城市地区的口腔和一般保健支持的获取和提供，成本低廉。尽管牙科和许多医学专业仍然通过实际/手动检查进行临床操作，但在诊断领域，远程医疗应用程序可以提供良好的支持。因此，作为结论，应该扩大和改进牙科和医学中远程医疗应用程序的获取和提供，以向所有人群提供服务。
