CHANGSHA, Feb. 6 (xinhua) -- The Remote Medical Center of the Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, recently received many text messages from community-level hospitals applying for remote consultation on pneumonia cases caused by the novel coronavirus.

"Hello, this is Suining County People's Hospital. We have two patients waiting for remote consultation," one said last Friday.

Upon hearing the news, Huang Yan, an infectious disease expert, rushed to the remote consultation center, and sat right before the remote consultation screen.

"The patients are a couple from Suining County, and they are both infected with the novel coronavirus. The husband is in a serious condition," the local doctor explained on the other side of the screen.

Huang also obtained the basic information of the two patients and their examination reports, and communicated with the doctor about further treatment.

Huang offered guidance on the medication and treatment plans and helped to determine the severity of the disease.

"I made a follow-up visit to the patients three days later, and the patients' conditions were stable," said Huang.

Although the telemedicine center is not on the frontline of virus prevention and control, all department staff are ready for duty around the clock during the epidemic. The center also shares knowhow on epidemic prevention and control with other hospitals.

Once an application is sent, the center will organize a consultation team of experts to guide the prevention, control and treatment.

"Our experience and sources of information can guide doctors at the community level in diagnosis and treatment. Remote consultation is time-saving and efficient, giving patients timely help," Huang said.

As a response to the ongoing epidemic, Hunan Provincial Health Commission has set up an emergency service platform for remote consultation across the province, connecting 28 provincial-level hospitals with 116 other hospitals designated for diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus. The platform has also been connected to the emergency video conference system of the provincial health commission.

At present, more than 3,200 people from 260 health administration departments and medical institutions have received video training on the prevention and treatment of the novel coronavirus through the platform.

A provincial-level senior medical expert group was organized to conduct remote consultation on 11 critically ill patients in other cities in Hunan.

Recently, a number of hospitals nationwide have also launched free online consultation, so people can receive treatment at home, avoiding contagion.

Since Feb. 3, Tang Haozheng, a graduate student at Renji Hospital in Shanghai, and more than 40 other doctors and over 100 postgraduate and doctoral students have formed an online consultation team, taking turns to answer public inquiries.

After the consultation, the questions and answers are made public on the site, allowing users to view them and avoiding repeated questions.

Since it was launched, the platform has been visited more than 15,000 times.