Doctors in isolation offering diagnosis

Some doctors from Shanghai Renji Hospital have launched online outpatient services during their hotel quarantine after a logistics worker tested positive for COVID-19 at its west campus in the city's downtown Huangpu district on Jan 21.

On Tuesday, Ma Xiong, a chief physician in the gastroenterology department at the hospital, which is affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, became the first doctor to provide online consultation and diagnosis for patients at the hospital's branch in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

Ma was required to be placed under hotel quarantine because he worked at the hospital last week.

While an assistant doctor sits in the outpatient clinic room in the hospital in Ningbo together with a patient, Ma joins online and can browse through the patient's disease history, and clearly read the CT scans and other test results with the help of 5G technologies.

"Imaging examinations, such as CT, are a vital tool when doctors make a diagnosis of the patient's health condition," Ma, 52, said. "The technologies have made it possible for me to read the CT imaging from the computer screen as clearly as if it's just in front of my eyes.

"It's so good that we have such advanced technologies ready under such special conditions and can play a big role during the pandemic. Otherwise, I would miss 400 consultations for patients in both Ningbo and Shanghai during my two weeks' quarantine."

He said the half-day outpatient clinic for 31 patients went smoothly online, and throughout the process he could feel a strong sense of trust from the patients. The assistant doctor in the offline clinic room has been his apprentice for years, and that allowed them to have efficient communication.

In July 2019, Renji Hospital aired the country's first live 5G broadcast of surgery on an intestinal cancer patient using the Da Vinci Robotics System.

The live broadcast from Renji Hospital allowed dozens of doctors at its Ningbo branch－160 kilometers away－and their peers in Shanghai to simultaneously observe each step of the 90-minute operation in high resolution. It was just like being the surgeon in the operating room.

The hospital said that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, it launched an online hospital platform to allow patients at home to type in disease information, inquiries for doctors, and replenish their drugs.

"But the online outpatient service this time is still very innovative," Ma said. "The patients are actually in the clinic room with our assistant medical professionals and we can clearly see the patients' conditions.

"By providing consultations to my patients online, I also felt less anxious and lonely during the quarantine. There will be psychological challenges for people who have very tight schedules to suddenly come to a stop."

Each of the 1,759 patients, their families and the medical staff quarantined at Renji Hospital had received a package by Wednesday including a mug with the name of the hospital, a bar of chocolate, vitamin C tablets, 20 face masks and a letter of appreciation.

A patient surnamed Li said she will keep the mug forever as it records their collective efforts during this special period to fight against the spread of the virus.

At the Shanghai Cancer Center Affiliated with Fudan University, which is also under closed management, psychological counseling has been provided to patients and their families who feel anxious or depressed. Two experts from the Shanghai Mental Health Center were dispatched to the hospital on Monday and 10 counselors provide services on a telephone hotline.