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» Articles » PMID: 32349962

Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences From Western China

Overview
Journal J Med Internet Res
Publisher JMIR Publications
Specialty Medical Informatics
Date 2020 May 1
PMID 32349962
Citations 155
Authors
Zhen Hong
Nian Li
Dajiang Li
Junhua Li
Bing Li
Weixi Xiong
Lu Lu
Weimin Li
Dong Zhou
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Disasters and pandemics pose unique challenges to health care delivery. As health care resources continue to be stretched due to the increasing burden of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine, including tele-education, may be an effective way to rationally allocate medical resources. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a multimodal telemedicine network in Sichuan Province in Western China was activated immediately after the first outbreak in January 2020. The network synergizes a newly established 5G service, a smartphone app, and an existing telemedicine system. Telemedicine was demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, and effective in Western China, and allowed for significant improvements in health care outcomes. The success of telemedicine here may be a useful reference for other parts of the world.

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