Telehealth for fighting the novel coronavirus: review of activities on Diabetes and Osteoporosis management in outbreak

Excerpt

Today, the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic is considered a great threat to the global health, and numerous deaths are attributed to this deadly virus all across the world during the last months. Morbidity and mortality have been reported all across the world during the last two months [1]. As documented in details elsewhere, everybody is susceptible to this newly-emerged coronavirus, but people with underlying conditions such as hypertension and diabetes are more apt to develop serious and life-threatening complications [2]. Although people with osteoporosis and those taking osteoporosis medications are neither at a greater risk for contracting the disease nor more susceptible to develop serious complications, prevention from osteoporotic fractures in the present situation is of utmost importance [3]. However, seeking medical attentions including treatment and monitoring services by osteoporotic patients makes them at a higher risk for the infection. As a matter of fact, in today’s resource-constrained health systems both in developing and developed world, placing extra burden on health systems is quite irresponsible. Moreover patients with osteoporosis and diabetes can exponentially increase their risk of contracting the disease by exposing themselves to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. This can be potentially remedied through promoting usage of digital health technology, and patients with osteoporosis and diabetes should be encouraged to use telehealth services as far as they can, and avoid exposing themselves to the high-risk clinical environments [4]. …