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Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study

The COVID-19 pandemic is currently delaying the process of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) eradication, since most of the chronic diseases are neglected. Thus, there is a need for alternative programs for HCV therapy implementation and disease monitoring. Our aim was to provide a multidisciplinary approac...

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Autores principales: Doica, Irina Paula, Florescu, Dan Nicolae, Oancea, Carmen Nicoleta, Turcu-Stiolica, Adina, Subtirelu, Mihaela-Simona, Dumitra, Gindrovel, Rogoveanu, Ion, Gheonea, Dan Ionut, Ungureanu, Bogdan Silviu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8037937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33916226
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073694
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author Doica, Irina Paula
Florescu, Dan Nicolae
Oancea, Carmen Nicoleta
Turcu-Stiolica, Adina
Subtirelu, Mihaela-Simona
Dumitra, Gindrovel
Rogoveanu, Ion
Gheonea, Dan Ionut
Ungureanu, Bogdan Silviu
author_facet Doica, Irina Paula
Florescu, Dan Nicolae
Oancea, Carmen Nicoleta
Turcu-Stiolica, Adina
Subtirelu, Mihaela-Simona
Dumitra, Gindrovel
Rogoveanu, Ion
Gheonea, Dan Ionut
Ungureanu, Bogdan Silviu
author_sort Doica, Irina Paula
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic is currently delaying the process of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) eradication, since most of the chronic diseases are neglected. Thus, there is a need for alternative programs for HCV therapy implementation and disease monitoring. Our aim was to provide a multidisciplinary approach, so that HCV-infected patients from distant locations may benefit from HCV antivirals during the COVID-19 outbreak and within the lockdown period in Romania. Previously diagnosed HCV patients willing to participate in this telemedicine pilot study were included. Patient characteristics and medical adherence were assessed and compared to the year preceding the pandemic. We proposed a multidisciplinary approach by using a telemedicine program for HCV therapy monitoring. Patients also received a satisfaction questionnaire after delivering the sustained virologic response (SVR) result. A total of 41 patients agreed to participate in this study. The medication adherence was 100% for patients included in the telemedicine group, with a statistically significant difference from the medication adherence of the patients treated in 2019. The satisfaction item score was 4.92 out of 5 and our results (r = −0.94, p < 0.0001) suggested that older patients embraced the telemedicine program less, but with the same success in terms of SVR (100%) and medication adherence (100%). Our pilot study offers the first example of a telemedicine program in Romania for HCV therapeutic management. During the lockdown period, telemedicine has served as a reliable tool and novel alternative for conventional monitoring of patients treated with direct antiviral agents and should be further considered even following the pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-80379372021-04-12 Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study Doica, Irina Paula Florescu, Dan Nicolae Oancea, Carmen Nicoleta Turcu-Stiolica, Adina Subtirelu, Mihaela-Simona Dumitra, Gindrovel Rogoveanu, Ion Gheonea, Dan Ionut Ungureanu, Bogdan Silviu Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic is currently delaying the process of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) eradication, since most of the chronic diseases are neglected. Thus, there is a need for alternative programs for HCV therapy implementation and disease monitoring. Our aim was to provide a multidisciplinary approach, so that HCV-infected patients from distant locations may benefit from HCV antivirals during the COVID-19 outbreak and within the lockdown period in Romania. Previously diagnosed HCV patients willing to participate in this telemedicine pilot study were included. Patient characteristics and medical adherence were assessed and compared to the year preceding the pandemic. We proposed a multidisciplinary approach by using a telemedicine program for HCV therapy monitoring. Patients also received a satisfaction questionnaire after delivering the sustained virologic response (SVR) result. A total of 41 patients agreed to participate in this study. The medication adherence was 100% for patients included in the telemedicine group, with a statistically significant difference from the medication adherence of the patients treated in 2019. The satisfaction item score was 4.92 out of 5 and our results (r = −0.94, p < 0.0001) suggested that older patients embraced the telemedicine program less, but with the same success in terms of SVR (100%) and medication adherence (100%). Our pilot study offers the first example of a telemedicine program in Romania for HCV therapeutic management. During the lockdown period, telemedicine has served as a reliable tool and novel alternative for conventional monitoring of patients treated with direct antiviral agents and should be further considered even following the pandemic. MDPI 2021-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8037937/ /pubmed/33916226 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073694 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Doica, Irina Paula
Florescu, Dan Nicolae
Oancea, Carmen Nicoleta
Turcu-Stiolica, Adina
Subtirelu, Mihaela-Simona
Dumitra, Gindrovel
Rogoveanu, Ion
Gheonea, Dan Ionut
Ungureanu, Bogdan Silviu
Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title_full Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title_fullStr Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title_short Telemedicine Chronic Viral Hepatitis C Treatment during the Lockdown Period in Romania: A Pilot Study
title_sort telemedicine chronic viral hepatitis c treatment during the lockdown period in romania: a pilot study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8037937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33916226
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073694
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