Extract
The evolution of positive airway pressure (PAP) devices since their introduction by Colin Sullivan in 1980 has witnessed growing evidence supporting their use for medical conditions associated with chronic ventilatory failure. The emergence of PAP devices also resulted in a higher number of patients requiring long-term medical care and ventilation. The concept of “hospital at home” with home ventilation to ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals was evident when the prevalence of home mechanical ventilation (HMV) users reported in 2016 was at 10.9 per 100 000 population [1].
Abstract
Telehealth appears useful to fill in the void for home-ventilated patients to maintain the much-needed connectivity with their healthcare team during the #COVID19 pandemic https://bit.ly/3ftvjxW
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Tan Tock Seng Hospital Home Ventilation and Respiratory Support Service and the Motor Neurone Disease Society of Malaysia for their invaluable source of information on telehealth usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Footnotes
Author contributions: 1) Conception and design of the manuscript: C.I. Soo, Y. Chan, E.C. Loh and Y.K. Pang; 2) literature search: C.I. Soo; 3) overall supervision: Y.K. Pang; and 4) writing and approval of the final manuscript: all authors.
Conflict of interest: C.I. Soo has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Y. Chan has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: E.C. Loh has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Y.K. Pang has nothing to disclose.
- Received June 18, 2020.
- Accepted July 30, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020
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