The interest in telemedicine and telehealth has increased recently due to technological advancement. This technology was first used by NASA to transmit physiological parameters from both spacecraft and spacesuit.
- With telemedicine it is easy to reach wider population with use of technology. For example, people from remote areas can get specialist help through video call. They can share their data electronically and also can get prescription online.
- The local health worker such as general physician or nurse can work as intermediate and help in getting vital information to get definitediagnosis. This will enables faster medical advice for needy patients which will avoid critical delay in required treatment.
- This is more than useful in country like India where specialist service is not available widely. In situation of rare diseases for instance spinal muscular atrophy, patients can reach out to a Pediatric neurologist with help of local paediatrician as their local support. This will increase the outreached of specialist to every corner of vast country like India and also enables timely action whenever it is needed. COVID-19 pandemic has hampered treatment for various other health condition as most of the focus is to stop this pandemic.
- All the health sources and infrastructure being used for this pandemic.
- Care of SMA patients is also getting compromised as there is a risk of catching infection while accessing health care by visiting clinicals or hospital. Routine visits to physiotherapist, neurologist and pulmonologists are getting delayed. Also, SMA patients can get serious COVID-19 infection if there is already a respiratory compromised. 6