Abstract
The COVID-19 crisis has forced an abrupt change to the way our society functions. Two of our most critical sectors—education and health—have had to rapidly embrace digital technology in order to continue to provide key services to the public. Before the start of the second school term, and within a few weeks of our move to Alert Level 4, the New Zealand Government began distributing more than 17,000 digital devices to school students around the country. In addition, thousands of modems were circulated to households without current internet access—all in an effort to bridge the digital divide and enable online learning amid the COVID-19 shutdown.
In the context of health, clinical consultations that do not require in-person contact have moved to phone calls and videoconferences. For example, the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) made an urgent request for their members to use phone, email or video to reduce in-person consultations by 70%. Minimising contact between ill patients, their doctors and the public is a necessary component of our COVID-19 elimination strategy, and these (and other) telehealth tools help us to achieve this goal. They also allow at least part of our clinical pathway to continue to provide patients with access to care throughout a national shutdown.