During the COVID-19 pandemic, measures to reduce social contact have been used to prevent crowds of people trying to contain the spread of the disease and the consequent burden on health services. Digital health solutions have been of significant importance when used on several fronts at this time of humanitarian crisis. This research aims to present a report on the design, implementation, use and review of a telehealth platform for preparedness and response to COVID-19 in a Brazilian municipality. The study is based on an action research, supported by a scoping review of the literature to identify functionalities and characteristics to be considered in a digital health system used in outbreak, epidemic and pandemic scenarios. Subsequently, a relevance and prioritization analysis of functionalities and characteristics is carried out in the context of the studied location using the multicriteria decision support method Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). As a result, we propose a framework for a digital health system aimed at coping with outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics, which served as a basis for evaluating the developed telehealth platform and can be used to drive other studies in epidemic disasters. In addition, we offer a technological product to help facing the COVID-19 pandemic in a Brazilian municipality, generating social impact through the empirical observation of challenges and good practices experienced in the structuring and operationalizing of a digital health system to preparedness and response to an epidemic disaster.