The Role of Telehealth in the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Brazilian Experience

Ciencia e Saude Coletiva

article

Silva, Rodolfo Souza da¹  Schmtiz, Carlos André Aita²  Harzheim, Erno¹  Molina-Bastos, Cynthia Goulart¹  Oliveira, Elise Botteselle de²  Roman, Rudi¹  Umpierre, Roberto Nunes¹  Gonçalves, Marcelo Rodrigues¹ 

[1]Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

[2]UFRGS

关键词: Telehealth;    Telemedicine;    Covid-19;    Primary Health Care;   

DOI  :  10.1590/1413-81232021266.39662020

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Associacao Brasileira de Pos - Graduacao em Saude Coletiva

【 摘 要 】

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is the third coronavirus to cause severe disease in humans and to spread globally in the past two decades. In this context, several national public health departments, including the Brazilian Ministry of Health, highlighted what was, until then, considered a support service to the health system: telehealth and telemedicine. We intend to present the actions carried out by a national telehealth service in Brazil, both as a Primary Health Care (PHC) support service to professionals and to patients, as well as discussing the potential to reorganize a health system. This is a prevalence study that summarizes the measures adopted by Brazilian Telehealth Center from the 9th to the 27th epidemiological weeks of 2020 to support the health services of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). There was an increase of 76.8% in the demand for telephone teleconsultations during the evaluated period compared to the same period in 2019, with 28.8% of the entire demand arising from doubts related to Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic demanded a quick response, with the organization of materials about the disease, a new team to carry out telemonitoring and teleconsultation activities, in addition to the creation of a manual for teleconsultations in Primary Health Care.

【 授权许可】

CC BY