Hyderabad: SARS-CoV2, the virus which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced rapid changes in healthcare delivery. To combat the virus, in such a gloomy situation, new research from Massachusetts General Hospital has signified the usefulness of electronic consultations method, or e-consults.
According to reports, Electronic consultations (e-consults), in particular, maybe an effective method of sustaining speciality consultative care while preserving social distancing and reducing demands for personal protective equipment.
Dr Neelam A. Phadke, MD, Dr Jason Wasfy, MD, and their colleagues examined daily consultation requests from February 1, 2020, through April 1, 2020, at Mass General Hospital. Such technology allows clinicians to ask specific questions of specialists, who then provide recommendations after reviewing a patient’s electronic health record with no direct specialist-to-patient contact involved, reports said.
"We have already seen patients of all ages defer routine or life-saving care including everything from pediatric vaccinations for highly preventable diseases to evaluation for potentially fatal conditions such as strokes and heart attacks,” said Dr Phadke, an Immunologist at Mass General and a Health Policy & Administration fellow at the Mass General Physicians Organization.
"As experts predict that our nation may see effects of this pandemic span the next 18 to 24 months, it is clear that our health care system must step up and find alternative care delivery methods so that patients feel comfortable seeking much-needed care. E-consults fulfil this demand as there is no direct patient-to-specialist contact that would require a patient to come into the hospital or clinic," Dr Phadke said.
Using the e-Consultation platform, patients will be able to make appointments and get advice from leading medical specialists at any time, via a private messaging or video conference service at any time of the year. E-Consultation is fully encrypted and GDPR-compliant. Doctors can guarantee their patients’ data will remain secure from fraudsters and cybercriminals, unlike mainstream chat platforms, reports added.
It is pertinent to be mentioned here that the telemedicine, e-consults have been used at Mass General Hospital since 2014 as a tool to improve population health—reduce unnecessary patient visits to specialists and decrease wait times for those patients who need in-person specialist visits.
