Utility of telemedicine in the treatment of patients with chronic HCV infection using DAAs in remote areas with limited resources

Abd Allah, Mohamed; Wahed, Sherif; Ammar, Islam; Kamal, Ehab; Alboraie, Mohamed; Abdel-Razek, Wael; Hassany, Mohamed; El-Serafy, Magdy; Waked, Imam; Doss, Wahid

Telemedicine is a novel tool that could assist in the delivery of medical care, therefore, we aimed to assess the utility of using telemedicine in the Egyptian hepatitis C (HCV) treatment program to provide care to patients in remote areas. A telemedicine viral hepatitis treatment center was established in the Bahariya Oases, a remote area in the Egyptian western desert. We enrolled 208 HCV patients who were eligible to be treated using direct acting antivirals. Patients were clinically evaluated by a trained general practitioner (GP). Final management decision was taken through a video conference with a hepatology consultant after reviewing all pre-treatment investigations. The GPs had a 24/7 access to the supervising consultant for any queries. All patients (100%) agreed to use this novel method with no reported cases of loss to follow up. Most of the patients (99.03%) were treatment naive and 99.51% of them did not have cirrhosis. Sofosbuvir + daclatasvir ± Ribavirin was the most used regimen in 204 (98.07%) patients. No serious adverse events were reported. All enrolled patients (100%) achieved a sustained virologic response.