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Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do?
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has represented a challenge to medical practice in Saudi Arabia and worldwide. In contrary to the increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients, there was a limitation in the capacity of medical practices and access to healthcare. A growing body of evidence...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535869/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682363 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010617 |
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author | Al-Hazmi, Ali Mohsen Sheerah, Haytham A. Arafa, Ahmed |
author_facet | Al-Hazmi, Ali Mohsen Sheerah, Haytham A. Arafa, Ahmed |
author_sort | Al-Hazmi, Ali Mohsen |
collection | PubMed |
description | The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has represented a challenge to medical practice in Saudi Arabia and worldwide. In contrary to the increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients, there was a limitation in the capacity of medical practices and access to healthcare. A growing body of evidence from healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia and worldwide has suggested a possible role for telemedicine in responding to this evolving need. Telemedicine can be used for triage, direct care, follow-up, and consultation. It could be delivered through synchronous, asynchronous, and mixed approaches. While telemedicine has several advantages, such as accessibility and cost-effectiveness, its diagnostic reliability should be further investigated. The Saudi Vision (2030) has drawn up a roadmap to invest in digital healthcare during the coming decade; however, some barriers related to using telemedicine in Saudi healthcare settings, including cultural issues and technical difficulties, should be openly discussed. In addition, before putting telemedicine in practice on a wide scale in Saudi Arabia, more efforts should be carried out to issue updated legislation and regulations, discuss and respond to ethical concerns, and ensure data security. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8535869 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85358692021-10-23 Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? Al-Hazmi, Ali Mohsen Sheerah, Haytham A. Arafa, Ahmed Int J Environ Res Public Health Review The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has represented a challenge to medical practice in Saudi Arabia and worldwide. In contrary to the increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients, there was a limitation in the capacity of medical practices and access to healthcare. A growing body of evidence from healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia and worldwide has suggested a possible role for telemedicine in responding to this evolving need. Telemedicine can be used for triage, direct care, follow-up, and consultation. It could be delivered through synchronous, asynchronous, and mixed approaches. While telemedicine has several advantages, such as accessibility and cost-effectiveness, its diagnostic reliability should be further investigated. The Saudi Vision (2030) has drawn up a roadmap to invest in digital healthcare during the coming decade; however, some barriers related to using telemedicine in Saudi healthcare settings, including cultural issues and technical difficulties, should be openly discussed. In addition, before putting telemedicine in practice on a wide scale in Saudi Arabia, more efforts should be carried out to issue updated legislation and regulations, discuss and respond to ethical concerns, and ensure data security. MDPI 2021-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8535869/ /pubmed/34682363 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010617 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 | Review Al-Hazmi, Ali Mohsen Sheerah, Haytham A. Arafa, Ahmed Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title | Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title_full | Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title_fullStr | Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title_full_unstemmed | Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title_short | Perspectives on Telemedicine during the Era of COVID-19; What Can Saudi Arabia Do? |
title_sort | perspectives on telemedicine during the era of covid-19; what can saudi arabia do? |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535869/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682363 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010617 |
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