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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Connected Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1475422
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Cybersecurity in Healthcare: Challenges and Solutions View all articles

The impact of Internet healthcare derived from the COVID-19 on the outpatients in cardiology department

Provisionally accepted
Jie liu Jie liu 1Yunhan Fei Yunhan Fei 2Enquan Wang Enquan Wang 1Ying Gao Ying Gao 1Yu Meng Yu Meng 1Dongxue Huang Dongxue Huang 1Wenjuan Zhao Wenjuan Zhao 2Keliang Xie Keliang Xie 1*
  • 1 Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
  • 2 Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, Tianjin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective:This study examines the impact of COVID-19-derived online medical services on cardiovascular patient visits and assesses whether these services can ease the strain on medical resources. Method: This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiology services and hospital operations. We analyzed key primary medical business indicators in cardiology, including outpatient visits, inpatient improvement rates, cure rates, and mortality rates, over a three-year period from 2019 to 2021. Furthermore, the study assessed the influence of the development of Internet-based medical services on the treatment capabilities for cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, we compared the changes in the number of outpatient visits in four categories of offline outpatient clinics in the Department of Cardiology during two phases: Phase I (February 1, 2019, to February 28, 2020) and Phase II (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021). Results: Compared to the period before online services (T1), the second stage (T2) saw a significant decrease in total offline and general clinic visits. Post-establishment of online clinics, the third period (P3) showed a significant reduction in total offline, general, and senior clinic visits compared to the first period (P1), while vice-senior and VIP/international clinic visits increased. The number of online clinic visits and VIP/international clinic visits continued to rise. Online consultations constituted the highest proportion (55.9%), while prescriptions and examinations were the lowest (3.3%), though they showed a gradual increase. After the implementation of online clinics, the improvement rate of patients' condition increases and the mortality rate decreases. Conclusion:Since the advent of online medical services, cardiovascular patients have increasingly opted for online diagnosis and treatment. Since March 2021, online outpatient services have driven overall growth in hospital outpatient numbers while maintaining medical quality. The primary use of online medical services is for consultations, which shorten medical time and reduce patients' implicit costs.

    Keywords: Internet online medical service, Cardiology department, Grade A hospital, Medical quality, medical model

    Received: 03 Aug 2024; Accepted: 22 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 liu, Fei, Wang, Gao, Meng, Huang, Zhao and Xie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Keliang Xie, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.