Page 19 - EE Times Europe March 2022

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OPINION | TELEMEDICINE
yellow, or red code based on its access to the
Telemedicine Can Do user’s digital footprint, such as the person’s
current location, previous trips, and prior
close contact with others. As reported in The
Much Good, But Will It New York Times in March 2020, people with a
green code are allowed to travel freely, those
with a yellow code should be in isolation, and
Become Too Powerful? those with a red code should be quarantined.
Notably, the color-coding system is strin-
gently enforced. A citizen’s digital footprint is
used to determine the person’s ability to take
By Sylvia He public transportation, drive on a highway,
or enter shopping centers, office buildings,
or hospitals. Anyone in a high-risk area will
Telemedicine has evolved substantially over the years, making be assigned a red code, even if that person is
medical care more accessible and affordable for more people. Today’s uninfected, and the person will not be able
telemedicine apps enable patients to consult a doctor without to travel out of the area until the red code no
leaving home and let doctors remotely monitor the health status of longer applies there. And anyone who tries to
multiple patients — for example, those with chronic conditions — at breach quarantine will likely be caught at one
the same time. of the many health checkpoints and turned
During the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine has helped protect back or even punished.
health-care professionals and patients alike. Remote consultation
reduces the risk of cross-infection by letting health-care staff assess Telemedicine is an
patients’ conditions and prioritize the serious cases while monitoring the mildly ill who are con-
valescing at home. In addition, when combined with apps that monitor where people have been increasingly powerful tool
and with whom they have been in close contact, telemedicine can help citizens assess their risk
of infection and respond proactively. for alleviating health-care
When the pandemic eventually recedes, telemedicine may be crucial for addressing a challenges worldwide, but the
slower-moving but equally dire problem in global public health: inadequate care. In developed
economies, this crisis is a combination of three problems: the rising number of older adults potential for its misuse
requiring care, an already-severe shortage of doctors and nurses, and the high number of health-
care workers headed for retirement, which compounds the first and second problems. While is growing.
population aging is less of a problem in developing economies, their health-care systems are
struggling to increase access while containing costs. Moreover, the lack of transparency in the
Telemedicine is an increasingly powerful tool for alleviating these problems, but it also pres- color-coding process makes it vulnerable to
ents numerous opportunities for misuse. misuse and even abuse. According to an anal-
Consider the smartphone apps that have helped track the spread of Covid-19 in many coun- ysis by The New York Times, China’s Covid-19
tries, including Singapore, China, Russia, France, Germany, India, Iran, South Africa, Austria, and tracking app appears to share user informa-
the U.S. Fundamentally, these apps help public health officials prevent further transmission by tion with the police. In the Western world,
identifying infected or at-risk individuals for testing and quarantine. this practice would be akin to a government
During disease tracking, a massive amount of patient data is collected and analyzed. However, health agency using Amazon and Facebook
the line between using the data for health-care analytics and mining it for other purposes is data to track the spread of a virus, then giving
blurry in most cases. local law enforcement access to the data.
For example, in China, the app assigns users — most of China’s urban population — a green, Russia likewise uses its tracking app as a
tool for strictly enforcing quarantine, accord-
ing to the World Justice Project. Failure to
install the app or respond to notifications will
result in a fine. In addition, the app monitors
many aspects of a user’s social life, such as his
or her location, calls, photos, and contacts. It
remains unclear what will happen to all the
data collected and accessed during the pan-
demic when the health-care crisis is over.
Telemedicine may also help propagate
health-care system fraud and abuse by mak-
ing drug misuse harder to detect and medical
claims harder to refute.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK do to improve human welfare, we also need
As we cheer for what telemedicine can
to consider how to wield this double-edged
sword without causing harm. ■
Sylvia He is a contributing writer to
EE Times Europe.

www.eetimes.eu | MARCH 2022