1 INTRODUCTION
The new coronavirus, responsible for causing COVID-19 infection, emerged in China in December 2019. Today, it is known to be one of the most contagious viruses. The pandemic caused by it has interrupted every aspect of daily human life. The rapidly spread pandemic allowed very little time for healthcare systems, public health experts, and scientists to grasp the situation. Several new guidelines and standard operating procedures have been developed thus far to introduce preventive measures for breaking the chain of infection spread.1 The pandemic has pushed many vulnerable people into critical illness, costing many precious lives. With all the precautionary measures in place and fear of the contagious virus, we are living in a very challenging time. In this time, social distancing and wearing masks have been declared the most effective preventive measures by the World Health Organization (WHO).1
The countries which introduced early and appropriate lockdown, such as China, New Zealand, and Taiwan, showed some success in gaining control over the pandemic in a short time.2 Pakistan has not been different. Following the detection of the first COVID-19 case on 26th February 2020, a smart lockdown was implemented across the country on 24th March 2020. Healthcare services were put on alert sustaining a balance between emergency, special care, and outpatient department services while keeping all the precautionary measures in place. Remote monitoring of vulnerable patients and distance consultations, as telemedicine, have been an integral part of the health services.3,4 A study conducted in 2017 reported an effective delivery of healthcare to several underserved communities via telemedicine.5 A similar study more recently has reported that telemedicine can play an important role in this pandemic by preventing the virus spread and utilizing the time of healthcare professionals effectively as well as alleviating mental health issues.6 In this feasibility study, we aimed to implement a pilot telemedicine service at our healthcare facility in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and describe our experience.