COVID-19: Digital health facilitating telerehabilitation
As part of the measures implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, telerehabilitation is a process that allows continuity of care for patients who can benefit from remote consultations, while ensuring greater protection for those who are members of vulnerable groups.
Digital Health: A Strategy to Maintain Health Care for People Living with Noncommunicable Diseases during COVID-19
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the main cause of death and disability worldwide. Effective management of these chronic conditions depends largely on continuous, responsive, accessible, and quality services and successful patient engagement and self-management.
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COVID-19 Information Systems and Digital Health: After-Action Review of the First 100 Days in Quarantine
In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on all sectors of society: on how we live, how we govern ourselves, how we mobilize, how we work, how we educate ourselves, and how nations manage and how we manage our health ourselves. In short, it has targeted many social structures that we believed to be fixed. As for the public health sector, many lessons have emerged to improve the response to future pandemics but also to improve the health system from the perspective of information systems for health and finally of digital health.
Webinar Series, Share-Listen-Act, COVID-19: The Potential of Digital Health and Information Systems for Health (IS4H) in the Fight against the Pandemic
On June 1, 2020, in collaboration with several partners and networks and 990 registered attendees, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched the webinar series Share-Listen-Act, COVID-19: The Potential of Digital Health and Information Systems for Health in the Fight against the Pandemic. This fact sheet contains responses to the questions that received the most votes, as well as other questions posed, and additional information derived from interaction with the attendees.
Why Predictive Modeling is Critical in the Fight against COVID-19
A number of predictive models and forecasting exercises have been developed by various organizations, such as research groups, academic institutions, hospitals, and consulting companies, with the main aim to support health systems in with COVID-19 strategic decision making, planning, and health policy formulation that help in the fight against COVID19.
COVID-19 and the role of information systems and technologies at the first level of care
Solid health information systems are essential to enable the first level of care to effectively focus on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, maintain continuity of essential services while community transmission of COVID-19 is occurring, and continue to offer non-COVID-19 hospital care.
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COVID-19 and the importance of strengthening Information Systems
Why are information systems key for pandemic response? During a pandemic, more than in any other public health situation, information systems play a critical role in managing data and other information at the speed the situation requires. Emerging technologies and automation have the potential to improve public health like never before in the history of humankind.
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Understanding the Infodemic and Misinformation in the fight against COVID-19
The COVID-19 outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive infodemic: an overabundance of information that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance. This makes the pandemic more severe, harming more people and jeopardizing the reach and sustainability of the global health system.
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Information technologies: the main means of social interaction during the pandemic
Over three billion people in the world are quarantined or in social isolation, and border closings and restrictions on transportation are in place, among other measures. As a result, widely used information technologies have become the main way that people interact and communicate.
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Why Data Disaggregation is key during a pandemic
Data Disaggregation is the separation of compiled information into smaller units to elucidate underlying trends and patterns. High quality, accessible, trusted, timely, open, and reliable disaggregated data is critical to generating valuable information for decision-making in real time.
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Why are Electronic Health Records (EHRs) key during a pandemic?
EHRs facilitate the use of telemedicine to monitor positive COVID-19 patients in their homes and continuity of care for patients who are negative and can be treated remotely.
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Teleconsultations during a pandemic
In situations where a pandemic is declared, the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty can overwhelm people, and health systems can struggle to cope with an uncontrolled and exponential demand. Teleconsultations are a safe and effective way to assess suspected cases and guide the patient’s diagnosis and treatment, minimizing the risk of disease transmission.
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