Coronavirus disease 2019: the role of telemedicine and teleteaching. A review

Abstract

Beginning from late December 2019, this spring of 2020 has been a testing time globally for every individual. Especially impacted are the health care educators of both medical and dental communities. New coronavirus disease 2019 or severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 is a highly contagious and lethal virus that has drastically influenced students, health care teachers, patients, and clinicians similarly. Numerous dental and medical schools/colleges have temporarily put on hold all clinical postings and placements along with classroom teaching to counter this virus's transmissibility. The onset of this disease may have profound and drastic consequences as colleges and universities have begun to conduct remote assessments while few are even considering deferring fresh students' related courses due to the inability in carrying out teaching and clinical postings. As health care systems shall be further stretched with an increasing burden of new coronavirus disease 2019, disruptions in medical education are expected across all countries and continents. Hence, necessary arrangements have to be made so that learning students can maintain their clinical skills as well as knowledge. Teleteaching or remote teaching technologies can potentially substitute in-person lectures and clinical training, particularly during the current pandemic era. These replacement approaches may be necessary as effective measures in the current medical education dilemma during this current health care crisis and shall also aid in laying the future foundation for teaching during similar confounding situations. In this review article, we shall discuss various modes of remote teaching that are available at this time.