Dr Hilary Pinnock Previews Her Session on Remote Consultations in a Postpandemic World

Hilary Pinnock, MD, talks about what her session at the European Respiratory Society International Congress 2021 will cover and other sessions that she's excited to check out.

Transcript:

What is your session going to cover?

So, this is part of a symposium which is looking at how our delivery of care may have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And one aspect of that, clearly during the pandemic, has been a huge shift to remote consulting. And what we wanted to consider was the implications of that, what evidence we have for these different types of consultations, and whether we're perhaps going to continue to do that or whether it's just something we did during the pandemic and how this is going to shape future consulting.

So, I've done a bit of work in the past about remote consultations, particularly telephone consultations for people reviewing people with asthma, which is hence my interest in the topic.

What other sessions are you looking forward to hearing about?

There are sessions set up by the primary care group within the assembly. Again, they're looking at how we are going to be diagnosing and managing, particularly asthma and COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] in the future, because again, a lot of things have had to change as a result of COVID-19.

And we are aware that for some things the changes have been good, and we will probably continue them. Others have obviously been less convenient. I'm thinking obviously, of things tests like spirometry, which we've not been able to do. And some things we will have to reintroduce and work out how to do safely. So, I think it's really looking forward. COVID-19 has been a major upheaval and we're looking to the future. That is very much what I'm interested in hearing about.