Telemedicine and Current Clinical Practice Trends in a COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Telemedicine is the medical practice of caring for and treating patients remotely. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has become increasingly prevalent. Although telemedicine was already in practice before the 2020 pandemic, the internet, smartphones, computers and video-conferencing tools have made telemedicine easily accessible and available to almost everyone. However, there are also new challenges that health care providers may not be prepared for, including treating and diagnosing patients without physical contact. We review current trends involving telemedicine, how pandemics such as COVID-19 affect the remote treatment of patients, and key concepts important to health care providers who practice telemedicine.