Evaluation of advances in Telemedicine provided by Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: evaluate telemedicine exercise before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This is a systematic review, in which articles published from January 2004 to June 2020 were selected. The databases used to survey the studies were PubMed and LILACS. Results: 81 articles were found. After the exclusion criteria, 15 articles were included in the qualitative synthesis, of which eight explain the Telemedicine approach before the COVID-19 pandemic and seven during the pandemic. Based on the articles, it was observed that, before the pandemic period, visits by Telemedicine were less used and more restricted; during the pandemic, it was observed that the practice of Telemedicine was more used and necessary in several specialties, in addition to postoperative consultations and patients with COVID-19. Furthermore, the evidence indicated that the pandemic enabled, through Telemedicine, greater ease of access to consultations, which could assist in the rapid detection and early implementation of conduct. Conclusions: In the general context, Telemedicine proved to be effective in increasing personal assistance. However, more studies are still needed to analyze the applicability of Telemedicine, its benefits and its harms, to define the situations in which it can be used with greater security.