Table 3.
Summary of digital innovations driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Technology | Application | Use | Benefits | Concerns | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telemedicine | Virtual Visits | Out-Patient Monitoring | Improvement of efficiency of the healthcare system while reducing risk of transmission for patients and physicians | Regulatory and standard of care issues | [68,69,[75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83], [84], [85], [86], [87], [88], [89]] |
| Standard Reviews | |||||
| Administrative Appointments | |||||
| Virtual Triage | |||||
| Teleproctoring | Telestration | Provision of input from experts in extraneous circumstances | Technical and communication requirements | ||
| Mental Health Resources | Eating Disorders | Provision of on-going care in stressful circumstances | Access concerns | ||
| Addiction | |||||
| Post Traumatic Stress | |||||
| Isolation | |||||
| Data Collection | Mobile Applications | Disease Modelling and Tracking | More accurate disease modelling and tracking improves response times | Privacy and security of collected data | [8,11,32,71,[90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97], [98], [99], [100], [101], [102]] |
| Contact Tracing | |||||
| Symptom Tracking/Early Diagnosis | Reliance on mobile phones disadvantages those with lower income | ||||
| Alerts | |||||
| Real-Time Modelling | |||||
| Drones/Facial Recognition | Surveillance | Advanced surveillance improves adherence to public health policies | Fears of living in a surveillance society | ||
| Enforcement | |||||
| Artificial Intelligence | Medical Imaging | Diagnoses | Improved healthcare efficiency, modelling, expedition of scientific research and flagging of misinformation for more effective responses to pandemic circumstances | Bias in data sets leading to biased analysis and decision-making | [11,[103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109], [110], [111], [112], [113], [114]] |
| Contactless Workflow | |||||
| Forecasting | Predictive Disease Modelling | ||||
| Disease Severity | |||||
| Information Sorting | Misinformation | Censorship of conflicting opinions | |||
| Scientific Research | |||||
| Communication and Misinformation | Governmental Communication | Increased Collaboration | Improved research efficiency and compliance with public health policies to increase effectiveness of response | Intellectual property rights | [8,72,73,[115], [116], [117], [118], [119], [120], [121], [122], [123], [124], [125], [126]] |
| Scientific Communication | Open Resources | ||||
| Public Communication | Policy Compliance | Misinformation leading to increased fear, panic and lack of faith in governmental policies | |||
| Fear Management | |||||
| Misinformation | Flagging by AI |