Creating the “new normal” post-Coronavirus world—web-communication replacing face-to-face interaction

Excerpt

Many of us shared the same experience in recent months: Sitting in our offices, we realized a dramatic decrease of patient numbers in our outpatient clinics. At the same time, the telephone did not stop ringing. So many patients feared to come to the hospitals, the place where all these terrible stories and images apparently occurred, which were published from so many countries around the world. The governmental strategy to protect the healthcare infrastructure from SARS-CoV‑2 was very successful—maybe even too successful for some patients. We now experience how many haematologic and oncologic patients were negatively affected by delayed diagnosis or treatment [1, 2]. An empty or an overcrowded waiting room, what do patients really need, what can be changed to the better, to what extent do we need the direct interaction? The COVID-19 crisis opened a new window of opportunity to rethink our perception of optimal patient care. We should “choose wisely” which recently implemented tools may be beneficial for our patients and our services in the long run. Indeed, virtual follow-up visits may persist even beyond the current SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic. …