ta A commentary on telehealth and telemedicine in the COVID-19 era: A world of opportunities for the neurosurgeon

Loading

Commentary Open Access
Volume 2 | Issue 1 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.46439/Neuroscience.2.008

A commentary on telehealth and telemedicine in the COVID-19 era: A world of opportunities for the neurosurgeon

  • 1Medical Officer, Sher-E-Bangla Medical College Hospital, Barishal, Bangladesh
  • 2Department of Public Health, Independent University- Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 3Jahurul Islam Medical College, Bajitpur, Bangladesh
  • 4Resident Doctor, Republican Scientific Centre of Neurosurgery, Uzbekistan
  • 5University of Cartagena Cartagena, Colombia
  • 6Center for Biomedical Research (CIB), Faculty of Medicine, University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia
  • 7Neurosurgery Department, Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

*Corresponding Author

Md Moshiur Rahman, dr.tutul@yahoo.com

Received Date: September 09, 2020

Accepted Date: December 15, 2020

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced unprecedented conditions and difficulties for the global delivery of healthcare services. In this situation, all the healthcare employees, including neurosurgeons are facing many complexities. Telemedicine has decreased the spread of infection between neurosurgeons and patients. In neurosurgery, telemedicine is underused for regulatory questions, infrastructure restrictions, litigation and responsibility issues, and patient confidentiality concerns. Technological advancements can help patients benefit from the adaptation of new techniques as it is a promising and powerful tool for the neurosurgical treatment of patients during the COVID-19 era.

Keywords

Telehealth, Telemedicine, COVID-19, Neurosurgery

Commentary

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the act of medication and neurosurgery around the globe, as needs across medical frameworks move to oblige a surge in COVID-19 patients. The neurosurgeon faces the test of offering neurosurgical medicines in times with limited assets [1]. In this commentary, we discussed how telemedicine has fused into neurosurgery practice and how it managed to deal with patients.

The terrible COVID-19 has been such an open entryway for telemedicine. The potentiality that can develop out of joining telemedicine into neurosurgery is enormous. With the progress of conferring development and improvement of a mechanical clinical methodology structure, neurosurgery has transformed into the new norm of standard neurosurgery practice. With social distancing being constrained over the country, various patients and specialists have gone to telemedicine for certain visits. Telemedicine is suitable for routine postoperative visits where the patient can report progress, and a direct video wound check can be driven with no issue. It is ensured and, in any event, an alternative for neurosurgical patients in the underlying ninety days after elective cranial clinical methods, including aneurysm cutting, arteriovenous change resection, cerebrum tumor resection, and various sorts of microvascular decompression [2]. The likelihood to have the option to give the perfect counsel at the perfect chance to the patient's frames the premise of distant telemedicine. The transmission of the novel COVID-19 has additionally extended the hole between the patients and their parental figures. Telemedicine while as an afterthought line in the past has now become a significant methodology to keep on conveying care for our patients.

The COVID-19 danger has confined doctor’s quiet correspondence, conceivably to decrease the viral spread and in this way to smooth the bend. This relative limitation in correspondence has expanded the interest for virtual clinical visits to help patients with neurosurgical issues. This situation has given a remarkable chance to the broad utilization of telehealth as an answer to this issue [3-5]. In the field of neuroscience, the main utilization of telemedicine is on the assessment of stroke patients for thrombolysis nomination. After some time, applications kept on growing to incorporate neurotrauma, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, stroke restoration, and interminable agony, among others [6]. In the COVID-19 time, among the fundamental advantages that telemedicine gives to the neurosurgeon, it very well may be referenced that it permits the neurosurgeon to arrive at the patient distantly without being presented to patients who could be positive for COVID-19. It empowers the neurosurgeon to utilize time all the more proficiently; encourages the neurosurgeon to separate routine cases from neurosurgical crises and to choose conduct, and permits the neurosurgeon to screen patients appropriately. This permits the neurosurgeon to perform effectively an exact and complete neurosurgical assessment [4]. Telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has given a remarkable opportunity to develop the instructive experience of neurosurgeons in the organization or neurosurgery of occupants so that they can acquire a more important glance in a variety of education and correspondence modes [3].

In the COVID-19 period, the primary preference offered by telemedicine for a patient is that it gives more prominent accessibility of medical care for patients with specific clinical consideration. Moreover, it wipes out geographic obstructions while clinging to COVID-19 security rules and patients can abstain from voyaging [6,7]. Now we can say that telemedicine is a promising and powerful apparatus to proceed with the neurosurgical care of patients in the period of COVID-19.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the members who have supported during the writing and editing of this manuscript.

Authors Contribution

Authors declare that all the authors contributed equally to the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there was no potential conflict of interest.

References

1. Tsermoulas G, Zisakis A, Flint G, Belli A. Challenges to Neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. World Neurosurgery. 2020 May 17.

2. Reider-Demer M, Raja P, Martin N, Schwinger M, Babayan D. Prospective and retrospective study of videoconference telemedicine follow-up after elective neurosurgery: results of a pilot program. Neurosurgical review. 2018 Apr 1;41(2):497-501.

3. Blue R, Yang AI, Zhou C, De Ravin E, Teng CW, Arguelles GR, Huang V, Wathen C, Miranda SP, Marcotte P, Malhotra NR. Telemedicine in the era of COVID-19: a neurosurgical perspective. World Neurosurgery. 2020 May 16.

4. Szmuda T, Ali S, Słoniewski P. Telemedicine in neurosurgery during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska. 2020;54(2):207-8.

5. LoPresti MA, McDeavitt JT, Wade K, Jahn LK, Viswanathan A, Fordis M, Yoshor D. Telemedicine in Neurosurgery—A Timely Review. Neurosurgery. 2020 Apr 26.

6. Wright CH, Wright J, Shammassian B. COVID-19: launching neurosurgery into the era of telehealth in the United States. World Neurosurgery. 2020 Aug 1;140:54-5.

7. Kahn EN, La Marca F, Mazzola CA. Neurosurgery and telemedicine in the United States: assessment of the risks and opportunities. World Neurosurgery. 2016 May 1;89:133-8.

Author Information X