Organization of urological and oncourological care for patients in a pandemic of COVID-19: Overcoming existing limitations

Abstract

The new coronavirus infection pandemic has certainly changed all spheres of human activity, the healthcare system was completely transformed and reassignment in a short time. The built model of a personalized approach to each patient was replaced by the provision of health services to groups of patients with similar symptoms of the disease and severity, and conditions not associated with coronavirus infection, anyway, took a back seat. Since the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main human and material resources have been directed at combating the new infection. To date, almost every country has cases of coronavirus infection. The planned surgical care was temporarily stopped, what could not but affect the outcomes of diseases. A special category of patients is represented by patients with diagnosed malignant neoplasms, the delay in treatment of which can significantly reduce the life expectancy and/or quality of life. The current state of the problem served as a catalyst for the development of telemedicine technologies, which simplified communication in the patient-physician and physician-physician relationship. Urinary tract infections are one of the most common reasons for visiting a urologist, which implies the prescription of antibacterial drugs. However, in a pandemic, remote prescription of these drugs is limited by the lack of face-to-face specialist consultations. This enabled make it possible to use drugs based on bacteriophages. Patient management problems were solved by using distance counseling techniques. In this article we present an algorithm for providing urological and oncourological care to patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an overview of the existing world practice in the implementation of telemedicine consultations in the current epidemiological situation.