One year ago, a doctor made headlines around the world for telling a man that his lung condition was terminal — via a computer link.

The device was rolled to the man’s bedside, and the 78-year-old heard the news that he was dying via a screen-based message from his doctor.

The man died the next day and his family, deeply unhappy with the experience, released footage of the interaction to the press, and headlines such as ‘‘Robot doctor’ used to deliver bad news to patient’ appeared.

However, as two doctors write in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the COVID-19 pandemic has made telehealth communications more commonplace, with doctors now delivering even the most difficult news via telephone or video.