Call for Good Practices in the Use of Telehealth during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Deadline: 14 January 2024

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) through the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Health Action invites Member States and PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centers to participate in the Call for Good Practices in the Use of Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The goal is to collect successful experiences in planning, structuring, implementing, and maintaining telehealth services during the pandemic in the Region of the Americas.

The purpose of the call is to strengthen knowledge sharing through the documentation of Good Practices (GP) in the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic in PAHO’s Good Practices in Public Health Portal.

Main Topics and Subtopics

Topic 1: Telehealth Services Infrastructure
- Structure and implementation strategies of telehealth services.
  - Proposed GPs could include experiences on:
    - Telehealth software
    - Portfolio of Telehealth services
    - Hardware (Informatic & Biomedical)
    - Interoperability of data and digital health systems
    - Physical space
    - Access to routine and specialized laboratory and imaging tests
    - Access to medications
    - Internet access & quality (cable/cellphone network)
    - Electricity access
Topic 2: Telehealth Services and its Users
- Relationship between Telehealth Services and the General Population.
  - Proposed GPs could include experiences on:
    - Trust building with general population for telehealth services usage
    - Population engagement in telehealth services
    - Population access to telehealth services
    - Ease of usage of patient’s front-end software
    - Socio-cultural sensibility within telehealth systems
    - Digital literacy and capacity building in telehealth for the community
- Relationship between Telehealth Services and Human Resources in Health.
  - Proposed GPs could include experiences on:
    - Integration of multidisciplinary teams: health, biomedical, information technology, etc.
    - Perceptions and trust of telehealth by human resources
    - Workflow integration
    - Capacity building on telehealth for Human Resources in Health
    - Digital literacy of Human Resources in Health
    - Ease-of-usage of front-end software for Human Resources in Health.
Topic 3: Legislative and Regulatory Aspects
- Legislations and/or regulatory protocols for telehealth services.
  - Proposed GPs could include experiences on:
    - General and health electronic data usage and privacy policies
    - The future of legislations waivered during the COVID-19 pandemic (if applicable)
    - Protocols for NCD patient care through Telehealth services
    - Artificial Intelligence usage policies
    - Legal ecosystems on telehealth including Human rights aspects
    - Cybersecurity, Open-source code, and Open data
    - Partnerships, public-private relationships to bolster digital health
    - Integration of telehealth in health professional contracts
    - Medical accountability within digital health
    - Innovation and Knowledge gaps
Topic 4 Continuity of Telehealth Services
- Strategies to ensure the sustainability and continuity of telehealth services
  - Proposed GPs could include experiences on:
    - Financing
    - Program continuity
    - Monitoring and evaluation
    - Scalability of telehealth services after the COVID-19 pandemic
    - Universal Health Coverage and Telehealth (leaving no one behind)
    - IT/Biomedical issue resolution
    - Research and Development (R&D)
    - Innovation and knowledge gaps

Submission of a Good Practice

PAHO uses a framework of eight Core Attributes to guide the documentation and assessment of GPs:
- Effectiveness: Evidence of successfully achieving its objectives. This evidence may include results sustained over time, tangible products, and methodologies.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Evidence of an economic approach that is financially realistic and accessible to the necessary actors.
- Efficiency: Evidence of a responsible and fiscal approach to implementing resources toward achieving the desired results.
- Sustainability: Evidence of maintaining the results achieved over time. It should generate the essential tools needed to confront future challenges.
- Replicability/Adaptability: Evidence of the potential to replicate or adapt to other contexts and situations.
- Innovation: Evidence of taking, promoting, or creating an entirely new technology or approach to a problem or encouraging innovation by its users to collaboratively develop new solutions to common issues.
- Participation: Evidence of the involvement of key stakeholders and partners (particularly the primary beneficiaries) in important decisions and actions related to the intervention and the adoption of a participative approach.
- Focus on Cross-Cutting Themes (equity, gender, ethnicity, and human rights): PAHO’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025 addresses four cross-cutting themes: equity, gender, ethnicity, and human rights. Given the centrality of the themes to PAHO’s technical cooperation, the Good Practice should demonstrate the capacity to analyze and propose changes in the vulnerabilities, diversities, or gaps that interfere with the population’s health conditions. The Cross-Cutting Themes will be updated in accordance with each iteration of PAHO’s Strategic Plan.

Who can submit a Good Practice?

National Authorities from PAHO Member States (Region of the Americas) and PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centers are invited to submit their experiences in the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include:
- Public health institutions involved in the implementation and/or management of telehealth services or in the supply of telehealth services.
- PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centres involved in the study, planning, implementation, management, and/or monitoring and evaluation of telehealth services are invited to submit their experiences in the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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