The impact of new electronic communication mode in treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract Background: More than 230,000 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been reported worldwide. We sought to discuss the impact of new electronic communication tools with patients in diagnosis and treatment of these cases.Methods: We recruited adult patients from Jan 20 to Feb 26, 2020, with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, in Zhuhai, China. 47 eligible patients were enrolled and randomly classified into either a test or control group. All of them were treated with standard therapeutic regimen and routine ward-round. The test group was subdivided into three subgroups. The first subgroup was arranged an extra 5min on-line ward-round by WeChat voice call once daily for basic disease communication. The second subgroup was given an extra 10min voice call once daily for further detail, similarly, the third subgroup was given an extra 10min than the second group every three days. The main end point was the duration of positive-to-negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.Results: 47 patients were included in the final analysis. The median time from disease diagnosed to the endpoint of test group was 7.0 days (interquartile range, 3.8 to 10.8), whereas the control group was 10.0 days (interquartile range, 6.5 to 14.5). It showed significant reduced the duration time of virus from positive to negative by the NAT (nucleic acid testing) (P=0.032), especially compared the 10 minutes group (3.0 days, interquartile range, 3.0 to 7.5) to control group (P=0.0065).Conclusions: The patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection might benefit from the use of the new electronic communication mode. It’s very valuable to reduce the shortage of medical protection resources and the risk of occupation.