TELEMEDICINE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Introduction: Telemedicine is broadly defined as the use of information and
communication technologies in healthcare. It is an essential tool during the pandemic
period as it has the ability to reduce the number of people attending health services,
thus also reducing the spread of the virus in an outpatient or hospital environment
and the number of hospital beds occupied by other comorbidities, releasing them to
infected people. Objective: To understand the advantages and disadvantages of
using telemedicine, through teleservice, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil,
from the physician's point of view. Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study,
carried out through an electronic form prepared in Google Forms online, via the web:
WHATSAPP and virtual social networks, by sharing the link. An instrument called
“Telehealth and Telecare Questionnaire” was applied. Results: 15 physicians
participated in this study, with a mean age of 42 + 2.4 years, 10 men and 5 women.
Most doctors work in the clinical area, 15.4% are surgeons, 80% of the participants
work in offices, 46.7% reported the quality of internet access as good, 33.3% have a
basic knowledge of computers, 66 .7% were not trained to use the teleconsultation
system, 53.3% define their level of satisfaction with teleconsultation as average and
66.7% agree that it is a way to reduce referrals. Conclusion: The present work
made it possible to identify the advantages and disadvantages inherent to the
applicability of telemedicine, in order to overcome them and improve the teleservice
system.