During the recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, telehealth has received greater attention due to its role in reducing hospital visits from patients with COVID-19 or other conditions, while supporting home isolation in patients with mild symptoms. The needs of patients with chronic diseases tend to be overlooked during the pandemic. With reduced opportunities for routine clinic visits, these patients are adopting various telehealth services such as video consultation and remote monitoring. We advocate for more innovative designs to be considered to enhance patients’ feelings of “copresence”—a sense of connection with another interactant via digital technology—with their health care providers during this time. The copresence-enhanced design has been shown to reduce patients’ anxiety and increase their confidence in managing their chronic disease condition. It has the potential to reduce the patient’s need to reach out to their health care provider during a time when health care resources are being stretched.
在冠狀病毒（COVID-19）大流行期間，遠距醫療受到越來越多的關注，除了可以減少COVID-19或有其他病症的病人同時出診的機率，也提供輕度症狀病人在家庭隔離。大流行期間往往會忽略慢性病人的需求。減少常規門診的機會，這些病人採用各種遠程醫療服務，例如視訊諮詢和遠距監控。採用更具創新性的設計，以在此期間強化病人與醫療保健提供者的“共存感”（透過數位技術與互動者建立聯繫的感覺）。強化共存感已顯示出可以減輕病人的焦慮感，並增加他們對控制慢性病狀況的信心。在醫療資源短縮的情況下，也盡可能減少病人接觸其醫療服務提供者的需求。
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