Telemedicine a novel way to fight a Pandemic

The Covid 19 pandemic took the world by surprise. Even those advanced countries with a well-established healthcare infrastructure were caught out by the speed that the virus spread and took hold. As a new virus, very little was known about its properties, how it was spread, and the short and long-term effects on health. The death toll was growing fast. The world needed answers, and fast. What was clear from the beginning was that existing healthcare structures were not adequate to manage the situation. Every country reacted in different ways.In Pakistan, The Punjab Government deployed “Smart Lockdown” as a policy to limit the Corona epidemic in March 2020. The essential services of the Patient-Doctor physical visit posed the risk of spreading the Corona epidemic. However, in addition to the growing numbers was a real danger that people rushing to the medical facilities (Hospital and Family Doctors) to obtain advice for suspected Corona virus symptoms, could have flooded the Government hospitals and private clinics. No matter what the crisis, in the moment of most need a solution presented itself.This is the story of what happened.

I congratulate both authors of the book “Telemedicine, a Novel to Fight a Pandemic” for their initiative showing how Telemedicine can be used in other parts of the world where medical expertise in dealing with a crisis might be limited. In my personal view, Telemedicine should be viewed as an additional resource in the day-to-day practice of medicine, and of particular importance when time, distance, availability and convenience are factors in limiting a patient’s access to the healthcare delivery system.Prof Dr Jay Saunders M.D., FACP, FACAA&I, ATA

Prof W Angus Walaace set up the Faculty of Health Informatics at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2000 where he launched the first master’s degree in health informatics, initially with the University of Bath and subsequently with the University of Edinburgh. During his five-year appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Health Informatics, he headed the team that developed the UK Surgical Electronic Logbook now used by all Trainee and Consultant surgeons in the UK to document their operations during training which has ensured good quality control of surgical training. He is passionate about delivering high volume, high-quality surgery through the NHS and has worked very hard in his own unit and, through his Regional Director work with RCS Eng, to make the NHS more efficient and productive.In 2011, after 17 meetings at Nottingham University Hospitals and negotiations with the Orthopaedic Business Manager (Will Monaghan), the Corporate Operations Manager (John Peach), the Information Governance Manager (Rory King), and the PCT Service Change Group (Dr Hugh Porter) he set up his first NHS Telemedicine Clinic using the Cisco Webex platform in April 2011.Dr Suhail Chughtai, is an orthopaedic surgeon with over 20 years of consultant level experience in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He felt there was a need for doctors to adapt to an increasingly technical, digitised world. This prompted him to study Computer Software and Hardware, receiving a Microsoft Specialist certification in 2001, and then going on to teach Medical IT across the globe. After taking a particular interest in Telemedicine as a vital bridge between the patient and the doctor, Dr Chughtai founded Medical City Online, a Telehealth Firm in the UK, which has designed over 20 International Telehealth and Medical IT projects. Part of this new approach views patients Telemedicine Software as “solutions”, rather than just products, and the firm has been actively engaged in helping to lessen the impact of Covid-19 in Pakistan