1 INTRODUCTION
The new coronavirus, responsible for causing COVID-19 infection, emerged
in China in December 2019. Today, it is known to be one of the most
contagious viruses. The pandemic caused by it has interrupted every
aspect of daily human life. The rapidly spread pandemic allowed very
little time for healthcare systems, public health experts, and
scientists to grasp the situation. Several new guidelines and standard
operating procedures have been developed thus far to introduce
preventive measures for breaking the chain of infection
spread.1 The pandemic has pushed many vulnerable
people into critical illness, costing many precious lives. With all the
precautionary measures in place and fear of the contagious virus, we are
living in a very challenging time. In this time, social distancing and
wearing masks have been declared the most effective preventive measures
by the World Health Organization (WHO).1
The countries which introduced early and appropriate lockdown, such as
China, New Zealand, and Taiwan, showed some success in gaining control
over the pandemic in a short time.2 Pakistan has not
been different. Following the detection of the first COVID-19 case on
26th February 2020, a smart lockdown was implemented across the country
on 24th March 2020. Healthcare services were put on alert sustaining a
balance between emergency, special care, and outpatient department
services while keeping all the precautionary measures in place. Remote
monitoring of vulnerable patients and distance consultations, as
telemedicine, have been an integral part of the health
services.3,4 A study conducted in 2017 reported an
effective delivery of healthcare to several underserved communities via
telemedicine.5 A similar study more recently has
reported that telemedicine can play an important role in this pandemic
by preventing the virus spread and utilizing the time of healthcare
professionals effectively as well as alleviating mental health
issues.6 In this feasibility study, we aimed to
implement a pilot telemedicine service at our healthcare facility in
Faisalabad, Pakistan, and describe our experience.