Symposium 7: From telemedicine to telepresence

Abstract

Symposium 7: Education in diabetes: the use of technology and the impact of COVID-19

From telemedicine to telepresence

When we think about the medical act, many images, feelings and memories of that important moment, for both the professional and the patient, come to mind. Of that moment that mainly happens in the doctor’s office, where the patient trusts the doctor to help him with their problem, hoping they would deliver with an exact and fast solution. During this year, a year that brought us a pandemic, a great challenge presented itself, that of maintaining the doctor-patient relationship, but through the distance, using technological tools that allowed for helping the patient in a similar way to the on-site manner which we are accustomed to. This situation has brought acceleration to the massification in the employment of telemedicine as a technological tool used to maintain the medical act. From the doctor’s point of view, there is a need to transform the moment of assistance into something more similar to the on-site acts. From the patient’s, to accept that, beyond the tools that allow for the access to a physician, there is a human relationship that must be kept unscathed. There will be important questions about the ease of use, how friendly the software is, security, but, most important than all, if the feeling of having a doctor by your side can be kept.