MEDAN-PR USU - The Covid-19 outbreak has recently been troubling the public again. After previously sloping down, the surge in confirmed Covid-19 patients rose again along with the outbreak of the Omicron variant which is claimed to spread faster than the previous virus variant.

Helping people who are exposed to the virus and have to self-isolate, the Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) some time ago has launched a Telemedicine service that provides free consultation and medicine and multivitamins for patients undergoing self-isolation. This service can be accessed via the hospital-sumut.usu.ac.id.

Telemedicine Covid-19 is a health service resulting from collaboration between USU, the Medan City Government, and the North Sumatra Provincial Government.

This application offers health services to individuals exposed to Covid-19 with various services that are accessed online. Individuals who are exposed to Covid-19 can consult a doctor without having to come to the hospital.

The Initiator and Main Coordinator of Telemedicine, dr. Inke Nadia Diniyanti Lubis M.Ked (Ped)., Sp.A, Ph.D said, USU's Telemedicine was previously launched in August 2021. Telemedicine is USU's commitment to providing health services to the community.

"Since July 2021 we have been preparing for this, until it was finally launched in August 2021. It has been around for some time. Initially, people were not too familiar with this service, so we offered it to patients who entered the ER. After being treated and recommended for isolation at home, we use Telemedicine to monitor the progress of the patient's health," said Dr Inke.

The Deputy Dean III of the Faculty of Medicine also explained that Telemedicine is one solution to deal with the increase in the positive number of Covid-19.

According to him, the whole community has the right to get health services, but health facilities are often inadequate to accept all these patients.

“With this Telemedicine, we open up opportunities for the whole community to be served. A person who feels he has been exposed to Covid-19 can consult and check through the application. Of course, this allows hospitals to focus more on people who are heavily exposed to COVID-19. As a result, the entire community can be served," he said.

In the face of increasing Omicron variants, Dr. Inke said, if Telemedicine is ready to be used by the community. He advised the public not to panic about this variant, even though it is known that this variant spreads quickly.

"People should not panic, even though the transmission is fast. We hope that people, especially in North Sumatra, can maximize the use of Telemedicine. Telemedicine is a complete service, and all services provided are free,” he explained.

USU's Covid-19 telemedicine is a health service that is available audibly. Patients who register will be sent anti-virus drugs, multivitamins, and monitoring devices. The monitoring tools are Pulse Oximetry and Thermometer. This will help the doctor to monitor the patient's health. All of these services are free of charge.

This service was developed by the USU Information Systems Center (PSI). Volunteers who play a role are academic community, consisting of at least 446 doctors and 207 students. These student volunteers are divided into several units, such as administration, doctor assistants, and pharmacy. These volunteers are unpaid and purely as a form of service and community service.

Communities who will use this service can visit the link rawatcovid-sumut.usu.ac.id. After clicking registration, the patient will be asked to complete personal data. In addition, there will also be a series of questions regarding the patient's medical history. These questions help the doctor later to provide an assessment of the patient.

Patients can also upload selfies or selfies related to their current condition if needed.

After filling the forms via the link, the patient can start the consultation and examination process. Telemedicine will connect patients with randomly assigned doctors. The communication is automatically connected to the doctor's WhatsApp to further examine the patient.

Author: Bambang Riyanto, Roni Hikmah Ramadhan - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Humas - Humas