Application of e-Health in the mental health of healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Application of e-Health in the mental health of healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic
Marzieh Esmaeili,¹ Marjan Ghazisaeedi,² Zohreh Javanmard,^3,*
1. Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3. Department of Health Information Technology, Ferdows school of Paramedical and Health, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
Introduction: During COVID-19 pandemic healthcare workers (HCWs) are under significant mental health pressure. Studies indicated problems such as fear, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders among the HCWs, especially first-line staff are common. Many factors are involved in causing stress on HCWs in the current circumstances, including high workload, growing number of patients, high mortality rate of COVID-19 patients, lack of specific treatment and vaccines, lack of protective equipment, long work time, and insufficient support. Hence, interventions should be taken to reduce the negative effects of this disease on the mental health of HCWs. Adopting information technology could be effective way to manage this issue. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate applied technologies in the field of mental health of HCWs during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods: In order to identify applied technologies for managing the HCWs’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, a search was done in September 2020 through Google Scholar with the keywords of “SARS-CoV-2”, “Healthcare worker”, and “Information technology” alongside their synonyms. The studies which were related to monitoring or controlling of the mental health of HCWs through technological-based interventions during the COVD-19 outbreak were selected to extract information.
Results: According to the studies, several technologies were applied to manage HCWs’ mental health. These technologies were applied to provide different services that could be categorized in three categories. The first category, called protective services, using technologies such as virtual clinics, robots, artificial intelligence, and mobile applications, were used to reduce the workload of HCWs, reduce provider-patient interactions, and ultimately prevent occurrence psychological problems in the HCWs. The second category includes supportive services in order to solve the psychological problems that the HCWs are engaged with them via providing the necessary training and counseling to them in the electronic context and through technologies such as video conference, telephone, and webinars. The third category includes diagnostic services and mental health monitoring of HCWs. Technologies such as sensors and wearable equipment, mobile applications, and online screening were used to monitor the mental health of HCWs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, in case of any disturbance, necessary warnings will be provided.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic caused several mental health problems among people especially HCWs who is under serious psychological pressure. Therefore, using information and communication technologies could be a beneficial approach. These tools provide services to manage and control the problems caused due to COVID-19 pandemic and represent useful statistics relating to mental health status of HCWs that could be bring attention of managers and policymakers.
Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic, Mental health, Medical staff, e-Health