Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a challenge for healthcare systems all over the world. It has severely damaged the medical services of many countries and exposed the significant problems they possess. In that case, telemedicine may be considered a good tool that helps medical organizations react faster to people’s needs and diseases apart from COVID-19. Its implementation may help patients with severe diseases and those who have coronavirus but have no need to go to the hospital due to the light form of the disease. The use of virtual clinic devices will enable doctors to reduce the number of face-to-face contacts with patients who are likely to have COVID-19 and, thus, decrease the risk of being infected.
Background
Virtual clinics make a significant positive contribution to the healthcare system despite the limitations the hospitals may face during their implementation. Apart from that, the system is not been properly studied yet, and, in many cases, it was implemented in a short period due to the quick growth of the COVID-19 contagion ratio. Telemedicine may harm the country’s healthcare system, so it is necessary to regard both its shortcomings and advantages when implementing it.
Aims and Objectives
The present proposal is aimed at exploring the influence of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia. The paper’s objectives are to analyze the sources and scientific and statistical data from them, establish whether the virtual clinic system positively influences the country’s medical system, and suggest guidelines for further research. In addition, the paper considers Saudi Arabian citizens’ attitudes toward virtual clinics.
Research Questions
The questions of the further research may be formulated the following way:
- Are virtual clinics an effective tool for the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic? How do they help the medical sphere survive this severe challenge?
- What is the popularity ratio of telemedicine in the country? Do Saudi Arabian citizens trust the virtual clinic system? Do doctors approve of its implementation?
Literature Review
The aim of the present literature review is to establish which factors are taken into account when analyzing the efficacy of telemedicine in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it is necessary to point out that due to the novelty of the problem, the number of scientific resources specifically Saudi Arabia is strictly limited. Despite that fact, there were found scientific articles on the topic that seem to constitute the relevant database for further research on the topic. They were published from 2020 to 2021 in peer-reviewed medical journals found in PubMed or ResearchGate databases. The sources address not only the healthcare system in general but also more narrow topics. They include primary healthcare or oral medical practice. Some of them also rely on virtual clinics’ popularity ratio among Saudi Arabian citizens.
The Current article status of telehealth in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 is aimed at exploring the current state of things concerning the role of telemedicine in providing healthcare services in Saudi Arabia during the coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2021. The main objectives of the scientific research concern the generalizing of all the literature sources on the subject of using virtual clinic technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia (Alghamadi et al., 2020). The research question may be formulated as follows: whether telemedicine may be considered an effective means of treatment that will not only be beneficial for the patients but will also help restrain the virus.
Apart from the effectiveness, it is necessary to assess the degree of the citizens’ content with the system. The article Patient satisfaction with virtual clinic during Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in primary healthcare and two other more articles address this issue. The others are titledMeasurement of patient satisfaction with the trend of virtual clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic and Patients’ perceptions and satisfaction with the outpatient telemedicine clinics during the COVID-19 era in Saudi Arabia. All three have the assessment of the Saudi Arabian patients’ content with the virtual clinic system that was popularized in the country after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as their primary objectives (Alwabili et al., 2021, Thirunavukkarasu et al., 2021). The scientific studies aim to establish whether the patients regard telemedicine as a reliable source of healthcare services and if Saudi Arabian citizens trust the system (Alharbi et al., 2021). The research questions of the studies may be formulated this way: are the patients content with the virtual clinic system, or do they have some concerns regarding the quality of the services provided by the system?
The article Telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic and its future impact on the specialty is aimed at establishing the frequency of using telemedicine among dentists in Saudi Arabia during the pandemic. In addition, it is to define potential barriers and problems that prevent the implementation of the method (Al Mohaya et al., 2021). The objectives of the study concern figuring out the possible further consequences of implementing virtual clinic practice among dentists, both positive and negative. The question of the research may be as follows: is telemedicine relevant for oral medicine practitioners?
The article titled Adoption of telemedicine applications among Saudi citizens during COVID-19 pandemic: An alternative health delivery system concerns the investigation of people’s behavior toward the adoption of telemedicine in Saudi Arabia that was boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research objectives concern the establishment of the ratio of Saudi Arabian citizens’ attitudes and the degree of trust towards virtual clinics (Yamin, & Alyoubi, 2020). The research question may be formulated in the following way: what factors influence the telemedicine system in Saudi Arabia? The present six articles may serve as a reliable database for establishing the efficacy of the virtual clinic system in Saudi Arabia since they contain recent and up-to-date information on the issue.
Methodology
Approach
Defining research methodology is crucial for study in any field. It seems that the qualitative approach will be more applicable for further research because it involves the analysis and review of the literature on the topic but not the statistical analysis of the factual data. However, the elements of the quantitative approach may be implemented as well in particular sections of the research if they involve the analysis of statistical information.
Research Design and Settings
When considering the scientific exploration of the impact of telemedicine on Saudi Arabian citizens, it seems relevant to suggest the following research design. It may concern the collection and analysis of the data on the issue from different scientific sources. To fulfill the aim of the study, which is to assess the influence of virtual clinics on the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic, different aspects of the issue need to be scrutinized carefully. Overall, such points as people’s satisfaction with telemedicine, its impact on the work of healthcare professionals, and the current status of virtual clinics in Saudi Arabia should be examined to provide a profound and detailed analysis.
Sample, Number of Participants, and Sampling Methods
The study may involve the participants if a person who conducts it has an opportunity to speak to Saudi Arabian citizens. If not, the research should have the analysis of actual data provided by the healthcare system researchers as its main objective. Hence, during the process of scientific research, the works of different Saudi Arabian scholars should be considered and examined, and the study should rely on the factual data provided by them. As it was stated previously, on the whole, there were suggested six studies from 2020 to 2021. The main methods of the research, in that case, should first concern the search and collection of scientific articles on the topic of virtual clinics’ influence on Saudi Arabian medicine. Then come the review and analysis of the information obtained during the research materials collection process.
Data Collection
The data should be taken primarily from peer-reviewed medical journals that may be found in medical databases such as ReserchGate or PubMed. Overall, currently, there exist nine hundred twenty-one articles on the topic of telemedicine influence on the healthcare system, but only thirteen of them concern specifically Saudi Arabia. Of these thirteen articles, only six contain a description of the current state of telemedicine in Saudi Arabia as well as people’s and doctors’ attitudes towards its implementation. These factors may be considered crucial when it comes to establishing the influence of virtual clinics on the healthcare system. They not only provide the explanation and confirmation of their efficacy but also regard public opinion on the issue. Hence, the popularity ratio of telemedicine among Saudi Arabian citizens and its efficiency were among the crucial indicators of the system’s vitality.
Instruments and Process of Data Collection
Computer software, the Internet, and medical databases belong to the instruments that may be used for conducting research, specifically for data search and collecting. The data collection methods may concern the online search in medical databases for scholarly articles and further elimination of those that did not fully cover the topic or did not fulfill the study’s aim. Analysis of the corresponding articles and the statistical data they possessed concerns the establishment of the actual influence of the virtual clinic system on healthcare in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the articles were chosen for the purposes of further research concerning different telemedicine-related issues, all of them have one thing in common. They established that the system had become an important tool for the healthcare system during the pandemic. They enable us to consider virtual clinics an effective instrument for providing people with fast and precise medical services.
Data Analysis
After the materials of the research are chosen and carefully proofread, it seems relevant to analyze the data they possess. The analysis should regard such factors as the approval ratio, the safety of the system, the benefits and outcomes for the doctors and patients, the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual clinic system in general. Apart from that, since the research is focused on the medical system of Saudi Arabia, it is necessary to regard the state of healthcare in this particular region. This aspect is extremely important because not every country possesses all the conditions that are necessary for successful implementation and further application of telemedicine although the practice has become usual for many countries.
Ethics of the Research
The present study should not violate any ethical norms or rules related to either human beings or animals. All the materials used throughout the process of research need to comply with the ethical rules and not harm anybody’s dignity. All the results should be published with the consent of the owners, and all the necessary links need to be provided. The study should be free for all people to access and cite.
Conclusion
Further research is aimed at establishing whether a virtual clinic system is an effective tool that helps reduce the load on the medical system during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The study should be a comparative analysis of the six scholarly journal medical articles for the period from 2020 to 2021. The articles concern different aspects of the issue that enable the author as well as the audience to assess the efficacy of telemedicine in different aspects. Hence, the research should take into account the ratio of patient satisfaction with the virtual clinic system in Saudi Arabia, the advantages and disadvantages of the system, and its efficiency in terms of the pandemic. The results of the study will help establish the viability of telemedicine for Saudi Arabia as well as suggest possible ways for the systems to improve. The research should be free to access and not harm the ethical rules.
References
Alghamadi, S. M., Alqahtani, J. S.,&Aldhahir, A. M. (2020).Current status of telehealth in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19, Journal of Family & Community Medicine, 27(3), pp. 208-211.
Alharbi, K. G. Aldosari, M. N., Alhasaan, A. M., Alshallal, K. A., Altamimi, A. M.,&Altulaihi, B. A. (2021).Patient satisfaction with virtual clinic during Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in primary healthcare, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Journal of Family & Community Medicine, 28(1), pp. 48-54.
Al Mohaya, M.A., Almaziad, M. M., Al-Hamad, K. A.,& Mustafa, M. (2021).Telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic and its future impact on the specialty, Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 14, pp. 4369-4378. Web.
Alwabili, A. A., Alotaibi, E. A., AlE’ed, A. A., Alqunibut, I.,& Alotaibi, O. A. (2021).Measurement of patient satisfaction with the trend of virtual clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cureus, 13(6).
Thirunavukkarasu, A., Alotaibi, N. H., Al-Hazmi, A. H., Alenzi, M. J., Alshaalan, Z. M., Alruwaili, M. G., Alruwaili, T. A. M., Alanazi, H.,&Alosaimi, T. H. (2021).Measurement of patient satisfaction with the trend of virtual clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthcare, 9, p. 1739. Web.
Yamin, M. A. Y. &Alyoubi, B. A. (2020).Adoption of telemedicine applications among Saudi citizens during COVID-19 pandemic: An alternative health delivery system, Journal of Infection and Public Health, 13(12), pp. 1845-1855.