Telemedicine in Brazil: Teleconsultations at the Largest University Hospital in the Country
Paula Gobi Scudeller, Antônio José Pereira, Giovanni Guido Cerri, Fábio Biscegli Jatene, Marco Antonio Bego, Talita Freitas Amaral, Michelle Louvaes Garcia, Celina Almeida Lamas, Aline Morgan Alvarenga, Marco A. Gutiérrez, Vilson Cobello, Carlos Roberto Ribeiro de Carvalho, Members of the Teleconsultation HCFMUSP Study Group, Adriana Bertaccini Rodrigues Bueno, Ana Flávia Rezende, Carlos Alberto Buchpiguel, Eurı́pedes Constantino Miguel, Francis M. Tomazini, Francisco Costa Neto, Gisele Regina Pereira, Greta Mascherpe Rossini, Ingrid Magatti Piva, Ivani Aparecida Nunes, Janaína Bergoli Galeazzi, Linamara Rizzo Battistella, Lissandra Pellizzon, Mariane Tateishi, N. Scaldaferri, Raphael Martus Marcon, Rossana Pulcineli Vieira Francisco, Tereza Barczinski, Vanessa Flaborea Favaro, Werther Bruno de Carvalho
Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic leveraged telemedicine worldwide mainly due to the need for social distancing, patient safety, and infection prevention. The Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP) was a key reference site in the treatment of COVID-19 severe cases in the country. To continue patient's health care, it became necessary to increase the number of teleconsultations and standardize it institutionally. Herein, we briefly described how the HCFMUSP improved the teleconsultation health care service during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the implementation of important innovations and the throughout standardization process, including patients and professional workflow. We also detailed the methodology used to implement or improve teleconsultation in a medical/multidisciplinary specialty at HCFMUSP. All these efforts made the HCFMUSP reach the goal of converting 15% of all face-to-face consultations into teleconsultations only in 2021. In addition, there were more than 370,000 teleconsultations until the end of 2022. Our experience has shown that having a supporting team, a digital certification process, and the data integration were key factors toward the successful implementation of the teleconsultation services. We believe that progressing toward teleconsultation will improve the population covered by health care services in Brazil, as well as contribute to a reduction of waiting time, and solving costs to health care institutions and patients. We expect this report of our experience in teleconsultation implementation could inspire and guide other health care institutions in the development of telemedicine.