Telemedicine for Older Adults During COVID-19: A Literature Reviews

Main Article Content

Mishleen Hallak

Keywords

COVID-19, Coronavirus, Telemedicine, Telehealth, Older Population, Older Adults, Geriatric

Abstract

When intended for the older population, Telehealth has the potential to be beneficial, especially during a crisis like COVID-19 pandemic, when older people were the most vulnerable group.


This paper gives an overview of the growing use of Telehealth among people 65 years and older during COVID-19 pandemic by reviewing relevant studies published from the beginning of the pandemic until the time of starting the data extraction process, our review found that telemedicine use, in general, has been beneficial for healthcare providers, caregivers, and patients as it is in the management of the epidemic.


Most telemedicine interventions or services were available for the management and control of chronic diseases, telemedicine has provided the possibility of immediate assessment and counseling of patients infected with COVID-19, multimedia treatment remotely, patient education and training, facilitating real-time data exchange, leading the collection, processing, and storage of medical information for patients, advising on strategic planning and drug use for patients with COVID-19, dealing with the worries of patients, digital assessment tools, helped in implementing social distancing, reduced reliance on public transportation, minimized the virus infection risk that may happen because of in-person contacts. It has promising use in the management of mental health crises associated and non-associated with COVID19.


The paper also reviews the possible limitation that can hinder better use of telemedicine by older adults such as the limited ability to perform a physical examination, concern about the quality, not getting personally connected to the medical provider, hearing or visual problems and privacy concerns.

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