Thanks to technology, not only deaths, but more than 6.5 million unnecessary visits to the emergency room were avoided. The data reinforces the effectiveness and the need for the continuity of telehealth in the post-pandemic world.
With the approval of Law No. 13,989/2020, the number of telemedicine consultations has been gradually increasing, ensuring and expanding access to healthcare throughout the country, the main benefit that telemedicine brings to healthcare systems. Data collected by Saúde Digital Brasil (Brazilian Association of Telemedicine and Digital Health Companies), which represents the main telemedicine operators in Brazil, show not only an exponential growth in patients treated through information and communication technologies, but also in the number of lives saved and patients satisfied and with their problems resolved.
Between 2020 and 2021, more than 7.5 million consultations were carried out by more than 52.2 thousand doctors via telemedicine in Brazil. 87% of these were so-called first consultations, avoiding the famous unnecessary visits and allowing the need for care in a hospital unit to be identified through exams.
More important than the volume of consultations and guidance provided remotely is the resolution rate of the services, which in individual emergency care consultations was 91%, that is, patients had their problem resolved and did not need to go to the emergency room for a second time. In addition, 1% of these consultations were essential for saving lives and also left patients satisfied – 90% of them rated the service as excellent or good. “There are more than 75 thousand lives that can be among us, due to the use of telemedicine. This is the function of digital health”, highlights Eduardo Cordioli, president of Saúde Digital Brasil.
Regarding age range, 84% of the patients were between 16 and 65 years old; 8% were 65 years old or older and 7% were under 16 years old.
The definitive regulation of telemedicine is under discussion in Congress, but faces resistance from the Federal Council of Medicine, which defends the authorization as a follow-up consultation — and not as a first consultation. However, Cordioli reinforces that this decision must be made by the doctor, of course always with the patient's consent.
“Limiting the use of telemedicine, whether by determining when a consultation can or cannot take place remotely; or by preventing doctors from treating patients from states other than their own through technological platforms, leaves healthcare even more vulnerable and nullifies attempts to provide care to regions that have previously received little care, as contradicts one of the principles that guide medical bioethics. It is up to each professional, especially doctors, to assess whether a consultation conducted remotely using technology is appropriate or not. It is this autonomy of choice that should guide the act of caring for people,” he concludes.
About Digital Health Brazil
The Brazilian Association of Telemedicine and Digital Health Companies, known as Saúde Digital Brasil (SDB), is a non-profit organization created to bring together entities that operate in the telemedicine service provision chain and that develop activities related to digital health.
Founded in 2020, the entity's main goal is to defend the cause of healthcare through telemedicine and telehealth in Brazil and to create regulations that guarantee its continuity. In addition, the SBD works to contribute to the improvement of the healthcare model, increase scientific and technological development and innovation, and qualified and sustainable development of the healthcare sector.
