Integration of Advanced Health Technology Within the Healthcare System to Fight the Global Pandemic: Current Challenges and Future Opportunities.

Darwish, Tarneem; Korouri, Samuel; Pasini, Mia; Cortez, Maria Veronica; IsHak, Waguih William

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge for providing adequate healthcare services in the context of patient isolation. DISCUSSION The ability of our current healthcare system to cope with the current situation is mainly dependent on advanced health technology, such as telehealth, chatbots, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI). Telehealth can be a novel tool for improving our current healthcare system and allowing for greater delivery of healthcare services during global crises (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic). Technology, such as chatbots, VR, and AI, could be utilized to reduce the burden of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, as well as to build a patient-centered decision-making healthcare system. OBJECTIVES Understanding the various methods of enhancing healthcare services using advanced health technology will help to develop new applications that can be integrated into regular healthcare and in time of healthcare crises. CONCLUSION Advanced health technology is a main tool to face a pandemic that decreased the burden on physicians and patients as well as the entire healthcare system.