The utility of telemedicine in managing patients after COVID-19.

Despite growing knowledge about transmission and relatively wide access to prophylaxis, the world is still facing a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2) global pandemic. Under these circumstances telemedicine emerges as a powerful tool for safe at-home surveillance after a hospital discharge; the data on when to safely release a patient after acute COVID-19 is scarce. Reckoning an urgent need for improving outpatient management and possibly fatal complications of the post-COVID period, we performed the pilot telemonitoring program described below. The study aimed to assess the usefulness of parameters and surveys remotely obtained from COVID-19 convalescents in their individual prognosis prediction. Patients were involved in the study between December 2020 and May 2021. Recruitment was performed either during the hospital discharge (those hospitalized in a Barlicki Memorial Hospital in Lodz) or the first outpatient visit up to 6 weeks after discharge from another center. Every participant received equipment for daily saturation and heart rate measurement coupled with a tablet for remote data transmission. The measurements were made after at least fifteen minutes of rest in a sitting position without oxygen supplementation. Along with the measurements, the cough and dyspnea daily surveys (1-5 points) and Fatigue Assessment Scale weekly surveys were filled. We expected a saturation decrease during thromboembolic events, infectious complications, etc. A total of 30 patients were monitored for a minimum period of 45 days, at least 2 weeks after spontaneous saturation normalization. The mean age was 55 (mean 55.23; SD ± 10.64 years). The group was divided according to clinical improvement defined as the ≥ 10% functional vital capacity (FVC) raise or ≥ 15% lung transfer for carbon monoxide (T