Jung Youngkyung, Baldeo Shawn, Pahuta Markian, Sharma Sunjay, Guha Daipayan
Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
J Spine Surg. 2025 Mar 24;11(1):166-177. doi: 10.21037/jss-24-72. Epub 2025 Jan 9.
Telemedicine, or virtual care offers a platform for remote assessments, for either initial consultations or follow-up care. Telemedicine is a broad term and may refer to video conferences/assessments, telephone visits, messages through online platforms, and remote monitoring applications. The restrictions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis had accelerated the use of telemedicine in Canadian healthcare. Several years after the pandemic, after this initial trial of widespread telemedicine, there remains significant uncertainty as to its efficacy and future directions. There are inherent challenges to telemedicine, including questions of clinical reliability and privacy, balanced against the possibility of efficiency and increased access to specialists. The Canadian healthcare system also poses significant challenges in the evaluation and systemic implementation of telemedicine, given the lack of a national legal framework and separate provincial or territorial regulation systems across the country. Telemedicine is of a particular interest to spinal surgeons, given the prevalence, morbidity, and economic costs associated with spinal pathologies. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, few spine surgeons offered telemedicine, due to the perceived challenges of remote assessment and diagnosis with spine pathologies. There has been little subsequent data to examine the role and suitability for remote acre in spine surgery. Herein, we review the current landscape of telemedicine in Canadian healthcare, with applications to spine surgery.
远程医疗，即虚拟医疗，为远程评估提供了一个平台，可用于初次会诊或后续护理。远程医疗是一个广义术语，可能指视频会议/评估、电话问诊、通过在线平台发送的信息以及远程监测应用程序。2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）危机期间的限制措施加速了远程医疗在加拿大医疗保健领域的应用。在这场大流行过去几年后，在广泛使用远程医疗的这一初步尝试之后，其疗效和未来发展方向仍存在重大不确定性。远程医疗存在一些固有挑战，包括临床可靠性和隐私问题，同时要权衡效率提高和增加专家问诊机会的可能性。鉴于缺乏国家法律框架以及全国各省或地区各自独立的监管体系，加拿大医疗保健系统在远程医疗的评估和系统性实施方面也面临重大挑战。鉴于脊柱疾病的患病率、发病率和经济成本，脊柱外科医生对远程医疗尤为关注。在COVID-19大流行之前，很少有脊柱外科医生提供远程医疗服务，因为人们认为对脊柱疾病进行远程评估和诊断存在挑战。后续几乎没有数据来研究远程医疗在脊柱手术中的作用和适用性。在此，我们回顾加拿大医疗保健领域远程医疗的现状及其在脊柱手术中的应用。
