DOC LEARNS TECH SKILLS

EAR nose and throat operations have been given the green light to begin again soon at a reduced capacity, with one Townsville surgeon revealing how he reinvented his treatment of patients under COVID-19 restrictions.

Surgeon Dr Shane Anderson who specialises in children’s and hearing surgery said the use of telehealth was transforming how he practised.

“It’s changed unbelievably. My practice has been based on taking a history and examining patients, and looking in their ears and looking in their throats and examining their nose. As a consequence of this restriction we can’t do that as readily as we would have once,” he said.

“We’re getting evidence from around the world that doctors and nurses who spend a lot of time around the mouth and nose are getting infected at a higher rate than the average medical community just because we’re getting more exposure.

“Which is why we’ve had to reduce our person-to-person contact fairly significantly.”

Dr Anderson said he was forming a new style of communicating with his patients, unable to conduct face-to-face interactions.

“I’m learning a new skill set of note taking and getting the information I need from that,” he said.

“I’ve had mums and dads sitting on their back verandas with a torch, and mum and dad are getting their kids to open their mouths and let me have a look at their tonsils via Facetime.

“It’s a challenge, but actually the kids are adapting to it really easy. The idea of the doctor being on their screen and being examined by their phone … kids are opening their mouths nice and wide, way better than what they’ve done in my practice.”

About half of Dr Anderson’s patients are not based in Townsville, and he believes an impact of the pandemic will be the increased use of technology in the future.

“I’ve said on a number of occasions this will have lasting effects on our communication even after we get a vaccine, once life gets back to normal,” he said.

“We can actually do a lot of things by telemedicine and once we get used to using that, I see a huge potential for its use.

“My patients have been really receptive to the idea of telehealth, the solidarity that people are displaying, I’ve never seen before in my practice.”