Abstract
While we have witnessed a change in COVID-19 cases in the United States and elsewhere, we have also seen its recent devastating impact in India, Nepal, and other countries across the globe. We have seen an uneven distribution of vaccines. Although there are at least 10 different vaccines currently on the market, worldwide distribution remains uneven and challenging. Vaccination distribution and administration vary by country, and is also impacted by an ineffective information system, which at times is inaccurate, untimely, or jaded in some way. This is the same with health care information. Access to health care knowledge and systems varies across the world. Although all the information in the world may not and in fact did not stop the pandemic, it did help in ameliorating its impact worldwide—again unevenly. Information systems, coupled with telecommunications, are key pillars of telemedicine and telehealth. They must be timely, accurate, and have some utility to those who use it.
There is a plethora of information on how health care has been impacted by COVID-19 and how telemedicine and telehealth have been applied. The number of peer-reviewed articles has skyrocketed. At this writing, the number of COVID-19/telemedicine published articles in PubMed is nearly 131,000. Similarly, the number of COVID-19/telehealth published articles is 5,400. This implies, the knowledge base has grown significantly in the past 18 months, and likely to continue to grow. As the coming years unfold, new knowledge and experiences will teach us things about ourselves, the inefficiencies in our health care systems and delivery models, and other ancillary systems. With each passing month, during this pandemic, we have seen an unprecedented growth in technology. And, not just in health care.
We are now at a midpoint in 2021, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) as well as many other professional societies will meet again virtually. The ATA is meeting throughout June to highlight the many facets of telemedicine and telehealth, including research outcomes, advances in technology, input from thought leaders, and networking. The abstracts for the meeting, both oral and posters, are accessible through the link in the table of contents of this issue.
The annual meeting is also an opportunity to recognize the best research article as determined by the editorial board. The best article of 2020 is entitled A Pediatric Telemedicine Response to a Natural Disaster and was authored by Joanne Murren-Boezem, Patricia Solo-Josephson, and Cynthia M. Zettler-Greeley. It appeared in the June issue. This annual award is sponsored by the publisher, Mary Ann Liebert Publishing, Inc. The ATA meeting is also a time to recognize those individuals who have achieved recognition of their peers and been accepted in to the ATA College of Fellows. The 2021 class of fellows consists of Joel Barthelemy, Deanna Larson, Tania Malik, and John Glaser. John is the immediate past president of the ATA.
What Is in This Issue
The journal itself continues to serve as the platform for sharing knowledge from all over the world. This issue contains a mixture of reviews, original research, and brief communications from Brazil, China, Jordan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and the Unites States. Five are focused on COVID-19, including one from Jordan and one from the United Arab Emirates (a review).
The pandemic has resulted in a wide variety of submissions from countries that have seldom or never published work in this journal. This is a testament to the need for sharing experiences, where the challenges of health care and information are different. Even more striking is the number of encounters where telemedicine has been applied. The Meyer et al. article from California reports >119,000 encounters. The article by Ibrahim et al. in the United Arab Emirates reports on telepharmacies in the area of ∼64,000.
While we will learn more and more about this pandemic and the havoc it has caused on every single person on this planet, life will return to normal. If a famous horse race on the first weekend of May can have >50,000 attendees and graduation ceremonies are starting backup, we undoubtedly will experience new ways of human interaction. Elbowing and fist bumping aside, we yearn for the return of what makes a human society.
Stay safe this summer!