Telemedicine in the COVID-19 Era: A Narrative Review Based on Current Evidence

Giulio Nittari, Demetris Savva, Daniele Tomassoni, Seyed Khosrow Tayebati and Francesco Amenta
Additional contact information
Giulio Nittari: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products, University of Camerino, Via Madonna delle Carceri, 9, 62032 Camerino, MC, Italy
Demetris Savva: Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Nicosia General Hospital, Nicosia-Limassol Old Road 215, Nicosia 2029, Cyprus
Daniele Tomassoni: School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, 62032 Camerino, MC, Italy
Seyed Khosrow Tayebati: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products, University of Camerino, Via Madonna delle Carceri, 9, 62032 Camerino, MC, Italy
Francesco Amenta: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products, University of Camerino, Via Madonna delle Carceri, 9, 62032 Camerino, MC, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers have been encouraged to increase their use of telemedicine and to adopt telemedicine platforms for the majority of their clients who have chronic illnesses. Due to the outbreak itself, almost all countries worldwide were placed under emergency lockdowns. In this paper, we reviewed the literature regarding the use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequentially, we identified the adoption of telemedicine in various countries worldwide and evaluated their future steps in order to increase the adoption of e-health technologies. As a result of COVID-19, the e-health agenda, especially telemedicine, has been accelerated in several countries. COVID-19 is affecting individuals’ daily lives and has created major difficulties in the management of healthcare facilities for both infected and non-infected patients. A large portion of the rapid increase in the use of telemedicine can be attributed to evidence from previous pandemics as well as progress made by the field in response to COVID-19, especially in industrialized countries. A lack of effective treatment, large numbers of unvaccinated individuals, as well as social distancing and lockdown measures suggest telemedicine is the safest and most appropriate way of working with patients and doctors. In spite of this willingness, a large number of barriers need to be overcome in order for the telemedicine system to function properly and effectively throughout countries. In order for telemedicine to be sustainable and beneficial beyond the pandemic, several technical, educational, infrastructure, legal, and economic issues must be addressed and solved.

Keywords: telemedicine; e-health; COVID-19; social distance; remote treatment; public health emergency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5101/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5101/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5101-:d:799537

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().