Leveraging telemedicine to preserve pediatric global health missions in the era of COVID-19.

This paper outlines the use of a global telehealth program to leverage the potential of telehealth to not only 1) preserve the previous progress of our pediatric surgical airway global teaching mission, but also: 2) to provide rapid, international dissemination of information related to care of pediatric COVID-19 patients; 3) to virtually support the attainment of self-sufficiency of our host countries in relation to our teaching mission; and 4) to inspire host countries to be local champions for each other during the COVID-19 crisis.

Family-Centered Information Dissemination: A Multidisciplinary Virtual COVID-19 "Town Hall".

Significant misinformation about COVID-19 has been spread on the internet. Parents of children with complex aerodigestive problems have a hard time understanding the information they encounter on the internet and the news media and interpreting how it relates to their child's complex needs. Our multidisciplinary team, at the suggestion of a parent, hosted 3 virtual "town halls" in which families could ask questions directly of pediatric otolaryngology, pediatric pulmonology and case management in order to efficiently obtain factual evidence-based up-to-date advice. The information discussed at the town halls was then annotated and disseminated via active, parent-run aerodigestive social media forums. The information disseminated via the town halls reached 4787 Facebook participants.