Ann Pediatr Res | Volume 6, Issue 1 | Review Article | Open Access
Mahmoud Nadar1*, Cecile Adam2, Hassan Ouali2 and Philippe Jouvet3
1Department of Health Sciences, University of Quebec in Outaouais, Canada 2Unit for the Evaluation of Technologies and Intervention Methods in Health (UETIMH), Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center, Canada 3Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Critical Care, Sainte-Justine University Hospital, Canada
*Correspondance to: Mahmoud Nadar
Fulltext PDFPurpose of Review: Telemedicine uses technology to connect patients with providers at a distance. While telemedicine has been documented in pediatric context before the COVID-19 pandemic, its uses are not as well reviewed by pediatricians during the COVID-19. This review focuses on the applications of telemedicine in different specialties in pediatric settings as well as challenges, strengths, limitations and future directions of setting up a pediatric telemedicine program. Recent Findings: Since the spring of 2020, there has been rapid development of telemedicine worldwide to provide remote care. In particular, telemedicine has been used to detect symptoms of COVID-19 and to prescribe tests. Telemedicine has many advantages among others: time saving, easy access, social distancing enhancing, and patients triage, allow guidance in delivering first aid in peripheric hospitals, amplify prescription refills, low cost, and hospital attendance reduction. However, telemedicine has many disadvantages that could form challenges for health care providers, such as: Risk of technological problems, lack of accurate physical examination, and risk of misdiagnosis, presence of medico-legal issues, risk of prescriptions errors and risk of confidentiality leak. For countries without telemedicine programs, the current pandemic is an opportunity to create an organized structure to support and encourage telemedicine. Conclusion: The impressive global conversion to telemedicine demonstrates the utility of this technology in times of social distancing. The pandemic has surely been conducive to a shift in the practice of medicine and health care. The adoption of telemedicine is likely to continue after the pandemic.
Medical informatics; Pediatric; Telemedicine; Telehealth; COVID-19
Nadar M, Adam C, Ouali H, Jouvet P. Use of Telemedicine in Pediatric Inpatient Care Hospitals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Review of Early Scientific Literature. Ann Pediatr Res. 2022; 6(1): 1066..