Telemedicine for housebound older persons during the Covid-19 pandemic

Hollander and Brendan highlighted the benefit to decision-making that may be drawn from the use of automated screening algorithms in prioritizing patient care to better allocate resources during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.  A strategy to screen older community dwellers at risk for home confinement-related adverse consequences must, therefore, be adopted based on an efficient and effective forward triage framework. In older community dwellers, assessing frailty is a definite cornerstone of triage, as it provides insight into the degree of vulnerability in their health status and their risk for adverse consequences. 

The Centre of Excellence on Longevity of McGill University (Quebec, Canada) designed, in late March 2020, a short assessment known as “Evaluation SOcio-GERiatrique” (ESOGER) for Montreal’s housebound community-dwelling older adults. It acts as the first step in connecting older community dwellers who are housebound during the ...