A systematic review in this issue of Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) focused on teledentistry reminds us that telemedicine and telehealth approaches have been around for decades.¹ However, there is no doubt that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed not only the frequency of patient-clinician visits conducted via technology across a distance, but also the emergence of widespread electronic personal protective equipment (ePPE) when the patient and clinician are in the same setting, as highlighted by Turer et al² and Wosik et al³ in last month’s JAMIA. Moreover, the variety of technologies for achieving such interactions has dramatically changed as illustrated by 4 articles in this issue.^4–7 However, in another highlighted article in this issue, Ramsetty and Adams⁸ delineate the digital divide issues that make access to telehealth technologies difficult for vulnerable populations, including the homeless, during the pandemic.

中文翻译：

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远程医疗：只是为了应对大流行病还是会持续下去？

本期《美国医学信息学协会杂志》 ( JAMIA ) 中针对远程牙科的系统综述提醒我们，远程医疗和远程医疗方法已经存在了数十年。¹然而，毫无疑问，2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行不仅极大地改变了通过技术远距离进行患者与临床医生就诊的频率，而且还极大地改变了电子个人防护设备 (ePPE) 的出现当患者和临床医生处于同一环境时，正如 Turer 等人²和 Wosik 等人³在上个月的JAMIA中所强调的那样。此外，正如本期的 4 篇文章所示，实现此类交互的各种技术已经发生了巨大变化。^4-7然而，在本期的另一篇重点文章中，拉姆塞蒂和亚当斯⁸描述了数字鸿沟问题，这些问题使得包括无家可归者在内的弱势群体在大流行期间难以获得远程医疗技术。