A EVOLUÇÃO DA INFORMÁTICA EM SAÚDE O CASO DO TELESSAÚDE E A PANDEMIA DE COVID-19

This article explores the evolutionary trajectory of health information management, moving from a field historically focused on data organization and processing to an integrated digital ecosystem for healthcare delivery. It analyzes the transition of health informatics, classically geared towards optimizing administrative systems and clinical records, to digital health, which encompasses emerging and innovative technologies centered on the patient and quality of care. Telehealth is presented as the main and most visible manifestation of this paradigmatic transformation. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as an unprecedented catalyst, exponentially accelerating the adoption of remote services and reconfiguring telehealth from a merely complementary support tool to a central and strategic pillar of healthcare. The methodology adopted was a qualitative literature review, systematically constructed from updated scientific studies on the subject matter. Based on the literature review, it can be concluded that, although deficient technological infrastructure and a resistant organizational culture imposed significant initial barriers, the urgent need for healthcare definitively consolidated remote care, revealing vast potential for future growth in the sector and for a substantial improvement in equity in access to health services.