The management of COVID-19 cases through telemedicine in Brazil
File(s)
Author(s)
Montelongo, Alfredo
Becker, Joao Luiz
Roman, Rudi
de Oliveira, Elise Botteselle
Umpierre, Roberto Nunes
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In Dec 2020 Brazil became one of the worldwide epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 7.2M reported cases. Brazil has a large territory with unequal distribution of healthcare resources including physicians. Resource limitation has been one of the main factors hampering Brazil’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Telemedicine has been an effective approach for COVID-19 management as it allows to reduce the risk of cross-contamination and provides support to remote rural locations. Here we present the analyses of teleconsultations from a countrywide telemedicine service (TelessáudeRS-UFRGS, TRS), that provides physician-to-physician remote support during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We performed a descriptive analysis of the teleconsultation incoming calls and a text analysis from the call transcripts. Our findings indicate that TRS teleconsultations in Brazil experienced an exponential increment of 802.% during a period of 6 days, after the first death due to COVID-19 was reported. However, the number of teleconsultations cases decreased over time, despite the number of reported COVID-19 cases continuously increasing. The results also showed that physicians in low-income municipalities, based on GDP per capita, are less likely to consult the telemedicine service despite facing higher rates of COVID-19 cases. The text analysis of call transcripts from medical teleconsultations showed that the main concern of physicians were “asymptomatic” patients. We suggest an immediate reinforcement of telehealth services in the regions of lower income as a strategy to support COVID-19 management.
Date Issued
2021-07-14
Date Acceptance
2021-06-25
Citation
PLoS One, 2021, 16 (7), pp.1-14
ISSN
1932-6203
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Journal / Book Title
PLoS One
Volume
16
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Montelongo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000678119300062&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
GRANDE-DO-SUL
CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS
CARE
TELEHEALTH
ACCESS
CHINA
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e0254339
Date Publish Online
2021-07-14