LA TELEMEDICINA COME UNA RISPOSTA CONCRETA ALLA PANDEMIA DA SARS-COV-2

With a pandemic such as the one caused by COVID-19, health systems all over the world need to find a functional and decisive strategy as soon as possible. The virtualization of therapeutic and care approaches, the so-called “telemedicine”, can represent a fundamental tool to ensure a direct real life-like meeting between patients and health workers thus reducing the spread of the infection. The poor interconnection between telemedicine services operating at different levels, the lack of a real multidimensional approach to the patient care, the management of privacy, the lack of clear regulations and guidelines, hamper the implementation of effective remote medicine solutions for pandemic management and full implementation of an integrated telemedicine system. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to help promote better use and integration of these new resources into the paraphernalia of health services. Telemedicine should strongly no longer be considered as an option or an additional component to react to an emergency but it has to become an integral part of a national health system equipped to face future pandemics such as the one in progress.