BACKGROUND: South Korea took preemptive action against COVID-19 through extensive testing, thorough epidemiological investigation, strict social distancing, and quick treatment of patients according to severity. The Korean government entrusted large scale hospitals to operate living and treatment support centers for the management for clinically healthy COVID-19 patients. OBJECTIVE: We introduce our experience implementing information and communication technology based remote patient management systems especially for a COVID-19 living and treatment support center. METHODS: We adopted new electronic health record templates, hospital information system dashboards, cloud based medical image sharing, mobile application, and smart vital sign monitoring devices. RESULTS: Enhancements were made to the hospital information system to assist in the workflow and care of patients in the living and treatment support center. A dashboard was created for the medical staff to view the vital signs and symptoms of all patients. Patients used a mobile application to consult with their physician or nurse, answer questionnaires, and input self-measured vital signs; the results were uploaded to the hospital information system in real-time. Cloud-based image sharing enabled interoperability between medical institutions. Korea's strategy of aggressive mitigation has 'flattened the curve' of the rate of infection. A multidisciplinary approach was integral to develop systems supporting patient care and management at the living and treatment support center as quickly as possible. CONCLUSIONS: Faced with a novel infectious disease, we describe the implementation and experience of applying an information and communication technology based patient management system in the living and treatment support center by Seoul National University Hospital. Information and communication technology based tools and applications are increasingly gaining importance in healthcare and we hope that our experience can provide insight into future technology-based infectious disease responses.
BACKGROUND: South Korea took preemptive action against COVID-19 through extensive testing, thorough epidemiological investigation, strict social distancing, and quick treatment of patients according to severity. The Korean government entrusted large scale hospitals to operate living and treatment support centers for the management for clinically healthy COVID-19patients. OBJECTIVE: We introduce our experience implementing information and communication technology based remote patient management systems especially for a COVID-19 living and treatment support center. METHODS: We adopted new electronic health record templates, hospital information system dashboards, cloud based medical image sharing, mobile application, and smart vital sign monitoring devices. RESULTS: Enhancements were made to the hospital information system to assist in the workflow and care of patients in the living and treatment support center. A dashboard was created for the medical staff to view the vital signs and symptoms of all patients. Patients used a mobile application to consult with their physician or nurse, answer questionnaires, and input self-measured vital signs; the results were uploaded to the hospital information system in real-time. Cloud-based image sharing enabled interoperability between medical institutions. Korea's strategy of aggressive mitigation has 'flattened the curve' of the rate of infection. A multidisciplinary approach was integral to develop systems supporting patient care and management at the living and treatment support center as quickly as possible. CONCLUSIONS: Faced with a novel infectious disease, we describe the implementation and experience of applying an information and communication technology based patient management system in the living and treatment support center by Seoul National University Hospital. Information and communication technology based tools and applications are increasingly gaining importance in healthcare and we hope that our experience can provide insight into future technology-based infectious disease responses.