Challenges and Lessons from an Acute Telehealth Homeopathy Service During the Pandemic: A Case Series Exploring How...

Background: In 2020, HOHM Foundation launched Homeopathy Help Now (HHN), a network of professional homeopathy telehealth practitioners, administrative volunteers, and independent researchers to work collaboratively in order to respond to the urgent need of care for the ever-growing number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Methods: in this pragmatic case series study, cases of positively testing or probable COVID-19 (n = 3495) are analyzed using conventional quantitative analysis. The sample includes clinical data collected from clients who attended the clinic between 23 March 2020 and 31 December 2023. Results: The youngest client at the clinic was less than one year old, and the eldest was 92. Many of the participants at this clinical facility were adults (58.1%), with fewer (41.9%) aged 0-17. Many were female (61.7%), while fewer were male (32.4). Most clients found their symptoms improved at final contact (83.6%), and the majority of individual remedy responses improved symptoms (73.7%) over the course of their care. Discussion: Health Services and Public Health research projects are warranted to investigate the ways in which such a necessary stop-gap clinical service as HHN could become implemented in early- and later-phase response to pandemics. HHN's collaborative, horizontally integrated team structure was essential for the creation of the novel approach needed to address the serious symptoms of COVID-19. Moreover, HHN's organizational model draws on a mutual aid structure, whereby dynamic, flexible systems are created that empower a community to meet emerging needs, especially when more formal structures are strained, failing or simply unavailable. Further research is urgently needed into the implementation and benefits of innovative, flexible healthcare structures, such as the one used in this study, that can meet the unpredictable and fluctuating public health needs in our changing world.