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BackgroundSince the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a boost in the digital transformation of the human society, where wearable devices such as a smartwatch can already measure vital signs in a continuous and naturalistic way; however, the security and privacy of personal data is a challenge to expanding the use of these data by health professionals in clinical follow-up for decision-making. Similar to the European General Data Protection Regulation, in Brazil, the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados established rules and guidelines for the processing of personal data, including those used for patient care, such as those captured by smartwatches. Thus, in any telemonitoring scenario, there is a need to comply with rules and regulations, making this issue a challenge to overcome. ObjectiveThis study aimed to build a digital solution model for capturing data from wearable devices and making them available in a safe and agile manner for clinical and research use, following current laws. MethodsA functional model was built following the Brazilian Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (2018), where data captured by smartwatches can be transmitted anonymously over the Internet of Things and be identified later within the hospital. A total of 80 volunteers were selected for a 24-week follow-up clinical trial divided into 2 groups, one group with a previous diagnosis of COVID-19 and a control group without a previous diagnosis of COVID-19, to measure the synchronization rate of the platform with the devices and the accuracy and precision of the smartwatch in out-of-hospital conditions to simulate remote monitoring at home. ResultsIn a 35-week clinical trial, >11.2 million records were collected with no system downtime; 66% of continuous beats per minute were synchronized within 24 hours (79% within 2 days and 91% within a week). In the limit of agreement analysis, the mean differences in oxygen saturation, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate were −1.280% (SD 5.679%), −1.399 (SD 19.112) mm Hg, −1.536 (SD 24.244) mm Hg, and 0.566 (SD 3.114) beats per minute, respectively. Furthermore, there was no difference in the 2 study groups in terms of data analysis (neither using the smartwatch nor the gold-standard devices), but it is worth mentioning that all volunteers in the COVID-19 group were already cured of the infection and were highly functional in their daily work life. ConclusionsOn the basis of the results obtained, considering the validation conditions of accuracy and precision and simulating an extrahospital use environment, the functional model built in this study is capable of capturing data from the smartwatch and anonymously providing it to health care services, where they can be treated according to the legislation and be used to support clinical decisions during remote monitoring.

BackgroundWith the arrival of the pandemic, telemedicine has been widely used to provide medical care and can be used to assist patients in regions far from urban centers that are difficult to access, such as riverside communities in the Brazilian Amazon region. A telemedicine project connecting São Paulo, a mega-metropolis, to Paysandú, a riverside district in the Amazon, was built to serve the local population where access to the nearest medical care is 6 hours away by speedboat. ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the feedback from patients and doctors regarding the use of telemedicine in outpatient care at Paysandú, a riverside district in the Amazon. MethodsThis is a single-center study following the guidelines “Evaluating digital health products” from Public Health England, with local adaptations for the project and the Brazilian reality, that was conducted between São Paulo and Santarém in Brazil. A survey was carried out with patients who were treated by a doctor in the city of São Paulo, about 2500 km from the local basic health unit, between September 27 to December 15, 2021. At the end of each teleconsultation, the attending physician answered an administrative survey form, and the patient answered a satisfaction survey. ResultsA total of 111 patients completed the satisfaction survey from a total of 220 consultations carried out during the period (95% CI margin error 0.22%). According to the survey, more than 95% of patients were satisfied with the service, 87.4% (n=97) had previous experience with videoconferencing, and 76.6% (n=85) reported that their demand was fully solved. Additionally, according to the hired doctor’s feedback, the average duration of the consultations was between 15 and 20 minutes. Of the 220 teleconsultations performed, 90.9% (n=200) of the demands were solved with support from the local health team, and 99.1% (n=218) of the appointments had a problem with audio or video. ConclusionsThis teleconsultation project between São Paulo and Paysandú showed that it is possible to offer medical care from more developed locations to communities far from urban centers, as is the case with Paysandú District. Beyond the feasibility of the infrastructure, acceptance and satisfaction among patients were high. This health care supply model has proven to be functional and should be expanded nationally or perhaps internationally to regions lacking medical assistance. Escalation of the project does not seem too difficult once infrastructure issues are solved.

BackgroundMonitoring vital signs such as oximetry, blood pressure, and heart rate is important to follow the evolution of patients. Smartwatches are a revolution in medicine allowing the collection of such data in a continuous and organic way. However, it is still a challenge to make this information available to health care professionals to make decisions during clinical follow-up. ObjectiveThis study aims to build a digital solution that displays vital sign data from smartwatches, collected remotely, continuously, reliably, and from multiple users, with trigger warnings when abnormal results are identified. MethodsThis is a single-center prospective study following the guidelines “Evaluating digital health products” from the UK Health Security Agency. A digital platform with 3 different applications was created to capture and display data from the mobile phones of volunteers with smartwatches. We selected 80 volunteers who were followed for 24 weeks each, and the synchronization interval between the smartwatch and digital solution was recorded for each vital sign collected. ResultsIn 14 weeks of project progress, we managed to recruit 80 volunteers, with 68 already registered in the digital solution. More than 2.8 million records have already been collected, without system downtime. Less than 5% of continuous heart rate measurements (bpm) were synchronized within 2 hours. However, approximately 70% were synchronized in less than 24 hours, and 90% were synchronized in less than 119 hours. ConclusionsThe digital solution is working properly in its role of displaying data collected from smartwatches. Vital sign values are being monitored by the research team as part of the monitoring of volunteers. Although the digital solution proved unsuitable for monitoring urgent events, it is more than suitable for use in outpatient clinical use. This digital solution, which is based on cloud technology, can be applied in the future for telemonitoring in regions lacking health care professionals. Accuracy and reliability studies still need to be performed at the end of the 24-week follow-up.

BackgroundTo demonstrate the value of implementation of an artificial intelligence solution in health care service, a winning project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hacking Medicine Brazil competition was implemented in an urgent care service for health care professionals at Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo during the COVID-19 pandemic. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of implementation of the digital solution in the urgent care service, assessing the reduction of nonvalue-added activities and its effect on the nurses’ time required for screening and the waiting time for patients to receive medical care. MethodsThis was a single-center, comparative, prospective study designed according to the Public Health England guide “Evaluating Digital Products for Health.” A total of 38,042 visits were analyzed over 18 months to determine the impact of implementing the digital solution. Medical care registration, health screening, and waiting time for medical care were compared before and after implementation of the digital solution. ResultsThe digital solution automated 92% of medical care registrations. The time for health screening increased by approximately 16% during the implementation and in the first 3 months after the implementation. The waiting time for medical care after automation with the digital solution was reduced by approximately 12 minutes compared with that required for visits without automation. The total time savings in the 12 months after implementation was estimated to be 2508 hours. ConclusionsThe digital solution was able to reduce nonvalue-added activities, without a substantial impact on health screening, and further saved waiting time for medical care in an urgent care service in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: A good health care does not only depend on good medical practice, but also needs great management of its resources, which are generally short. In this sense, PROAHSA has been training new health managers since 1972. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that medicine will go through a new phase, where telehealth will be present in this “Improved Normal”. This report is about how a pilot teleconsultation study was carried out for HCFMUSP patients through the Scrum-like framework. It is to deploy a pilot of remote assistance involving a doctor and a patient in the Ambulatory of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation of HCFMUSP. METHODS: We applied the Scrum-like framework to carry out this work with an interdisciplinary multifunctionality team. RESULTS: A full telemedicine service flow was implemented within eight weeks using existing infrastructure and resources implementing the Scrum methodology. Twenty-three teleconsultations were scheduled and eight guides built. CONCLUSION: Scrum framework has a great potential to improve the training of students and to conclude pilot projects.