Healthcare strategies and initiatives about COVID19 in Pakistan: Telemedicine a way to look forward

Ayesha Humayun; Syed Shahabuddin; Saira Afzal; Ahmad Azam Malik; Suleman Atique; Usman Iqbal

doi:10.1016/j.cmpbup.2021.100008

Healthcare strategies and initiatives about COVID19 in Pakistan: Telemedicine a way to look forward

Comput Methods Programs Biomed Update. 2021:1:100008. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpbup.2021.100008. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Authors

Ayesha Humayun^{1

2}, Syed Shahabuddin³, Saira Afzal⁴, Ahmad Azam Malik^{5

6}, Suleman Atique⁷, Usman Iqbal^{8

9

1}

Affiliations

¹ Department of public health and community medicine, Shaikh Zayed Federal Post Graduate Medical Institute, Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical and Dental College, Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ Dept. of Surgery, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
⁴ Dept. of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Dept. of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine in Rabigh, King, Abdul Aziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Institute of Public Health, The University of Lahore, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha'il, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Master Program in Global Health & Development, PhD Program in Global Health & Health Security, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁹ International Center for Health Information Technology (ICHIT), Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the unprecedented devastating catastrophes with severe public health threat globally. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) are trying hard to cope with the rapidly changing global scenario and trying to mitigate this double crisis of pandemic and economic recession. This pandemic, has led to major changes in global and regional health care delivery proceedings with surge in telemedicine to provide the required services and also giving priority to control the disease spread.

Keywords: COVID-19; Global pandemic; Guidelines; Pakistan; Public health; Strategies; Telemedicine.