[Bringing Expertise to the Field: Analysis of COVID-19 Teleconsultations and Scenario-based Recommendations]

The emergence of the unknown disease COVID-19 and the increasing number of COVID-19 cases challenged the health system. General, standard care hospitals were largely unfamiliar with the treatment of severe respiratory failure up to then, and so this knowledge had to be transferred from university hospitals to standard care ones. Therefore, intensive care physicians within the preliminary stage of the virtual hospital North Rhine-Westphalia (VKh.NRW) used teleconsultations. Teleconsultations occur between two intensive care physicians, make expertise anywhere available and increase treatment quality and efficiency. The evaluation of these teleconsultations shows different scenarios. Whereas initially, the enquirers largely addressed general diagnostic and therapy question regarding the COVID-19 treatment, they arose more detailed questions later, necessitating a specialist, such as a pharmacologist. This scenario demands more explicit knowledge, and, thus, increased technology requirements. Barriers appear in the context of this technical infrastructure. Therefore, we evaluate which knowledge is transferred within different teleconsultation scenarios and which technology requirements must be fulfilled to increase the use of teleconsultation and, thus, improve the health system.