Primary health care and family physicians provide frontline care to the dermatology patients during the era of COVID-19: Recommendations and future directions

Abstract

COVID-19 has affected those disciplines where close contact is required and where there is no need for urgent care such as the field of dermatology. Due to the contagious nature of the virus, front line health care workers such as family health care physicians and primary health care doctors are using personal protective measures (PPE), which might result in skin disorders. In addition, social distancing has also resulted in the compromise of teaching and learning mainly bedside teaching in the dermatology wards. Moreover, there is also uncertainty about the guidelines different to be followed by primary health care and family physicians while assessing patients of dermatology. We aim to provide an overview of how COVID-19 has affected the primary health care workers and physicians. We have highlighted the challenges faced by the family health care physicians from the perspective of dermatology along with recommendations and future directions for family health care physicians. Results reveal that wearing PPE measures might be challenging for primary health care workers and family physicians as it can cause facial inflammatory papules, acne rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis, and facial itching. They cannot escape encounter with the patients, and they need to be careful by undertaking some precautionary measures while taking care of the patients in general with a specific focus on COVID-19. COVID-19 has also affected all teaching and learning in the field of dermatology. However, academic institutions can use digital tools such as zoom or skype to continue learning dermatology during the crisis of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Challenges; dermatology; future directions; primary health care physicians.