Bostan Pınar, Çetin Nazlı, Altınışık Göksel
İstanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Health Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey.
Department of Chest Diseases, Pamukkale University, Faculty of Medicine, Denizli, Turkey.
Thorac Res Pract. 2023 Jan;24(1):14-21. doi: 10.5152/ThoracResPract.2023.22058.
Telemedicine has been defined as a valuable tool in delivering care for COVID-19 patients. However, clinicians and policymakers should be convinced that traditional and new technological methods of clinical management may be equally effective. The purpose of this study was to generate some initial recommendations based on the clinical utility of videoconference consultation in forward triage and follow-up for COVID-19 patients.
This retrospective cross-sectional study evaluated the medical records of 100 COVID-19 patients consulted using a videoconference program (Skype), from September 1, 2020, to February 3, 2021. The data were analyzed on demographic characteristics, disease history, the need for physical examination after videoconference consultation, pre-diagnostics and diagnostics, treatment decisions, number of videoconference consultation sessions in follow-up, duration of sessions, and final outcome.
The male COVID-19 patients constituted 54% of the total sample. The median age was 51 (42-61) years. The median duration of the initial videoconference consultation session was 16 (12-21) minutes. Following the initial videoconference consultation session, 14 patients required follow-up with all face-to-face visits; the remaining patients were primarily followed with videoconference consultation sessions. For 25 patients, it was sufficient to provide only videoconference consultation sessions; they were not required to be in the hospital for physical examination or any subsequent investigation at all. A total of 14 patients were hospitalized. There was no statistically significant difference between the high-risk group and the other patients according to the components of the disease management process via videoconference consultation.
Videoconference consultation enables a holistic assessment regardless of the patient's characteristics and allows for more time to be spent on each patient, particularly during the pandemic period without risk of contagion. It can be used as a forward triage and follow-up tool to identify patients in need of emergency hospitalization and continuous health care.
远程医疗已被定义为为新冠病毒肺炎患者提供护理的一种有价值的工具。然而，临床医生和政策制定者应确信，传统和新技术的临床管理方法可能同样有效。本研究的目的是基于视频会议咨询在新冠病毒肺炎患者前瞻性分诊和随访中的临床效用，提出一些初步建议。
本回顾性横断面研究评估了2020年9月1日至2021年2月3日期间使用视频会议程序（Skype）咨询的100例新冠病毒肺炎患者的病历。对人口统计学特征、病史、视频会议咨询后体格检查的必要性、预诊断和诊断、治疗决策、随访中视频会议咨询的次数、会议时长以及最终结果进行了数据分析。
男性新冠病毒肺炎患者占总样本的54%。中位年龄为51（42 - 61）岁。首次视频会议咨询的中位时长为16（12 - 21）分钟。首次视频会议咨询后，14例患者需要进行所有面对面随访；其余患者主要通过视频会议咨询进行随访。对于25例患者，仅提供视频会议咨询就足够了；他们根本无需住院进行体格检查或任何后续检查。共有14例患者住院。根据通过视频会议咨询进行疾病管理过程的组成部分，高危组与其他患者之间无统计学显著差异。
视频会议咨询能够对患者进行全面评估，而不受患者特征的影响，并且可以在每位患者身上花费更多时间，特别是在疫情期间，不存在传染风险。它可作为一种前瞻性分诊和随访工具，以识别需要紧急住院和持续医疗护理的患者。
