Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Telemedicine Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study
| Autor: | Shammah Al Memari, Buthaina Alfalasi, Shereena Almazroui, Mohamed Alhashmi, Farida Al Hosani, Nahed Balalaa, Ovidiu Baltatu, Hamed Alhashemi, Raghda Almaashari, Noora Alhajri, Yousif Al Zaabi, Maryam Al Ali, Majd AlGhatrif, Mecit Can Emre Simsekler |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Telemedicine
medicine.medical_specialty 020205 medical informatics Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics Specialty audio consultation R858-859.7 United Arab Emirates Health Informatics 02 engineering and technology perception 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Health Information Management Health care 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering medicine Outpatient clinic 030212 general & internal medicine Response rate (survey) clinical decision-making Original Paper business.industry communication COVID-19 outpatient department Family medicine Cohort clinical training Health education video consultation telemedicine business Patient education |
| Zdroj: | JMIR Medical Informatics, Vol 9, Iss 6, p e29251 (2021) JMIR Medical Informatics |
| ISSN: | 2291-9694 |
| Popis: | Background To mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care systems worldwide have implemented telemedicine technologies to respond to the growing need for health care services during these unprecedented times. In the United Arab Emirates, video and audio consultations have been implemented to deliver health services during the pandemic. Objective This study aimed to evaluate whether differences exist in physicians’ attitudes and perceptions of video and audio consultations when delivering telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This survey was conducted on a cohort of 880 physicians from outpatient facilities in Abu Dhabi, which delivered telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic between November and December 2020. In total, 623 physicians responded (response rate=70.8%). The survey included a 5-point Likert scale to measure physician’s attitudes and perceptions of video and audio consultations with reference to the quality of the clinical consultation and the professional productivity. Descriptive statistics were used to describe physicians’ sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, designation, clinical specialty, duration of practice, and previous experience with telemedicine) and telemedicine modality (video vs audio consultations). Regression models were used to assess the association between telemedicine modality and physicians’ characteristics with the perceived outcomes of the web-based consultation. Results Compared to audio consultations, video consultations were significantly associated with physicians’ confidence toward managing acute consultations (odds ratio [OR] 1.62, 95% CI 1.2-2.21; P=.002) and an increased ability to provide patient education during the web-based consultation (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.04-4.33; P=.04). There was no significant difference in physicians’ confidence toward managing long-term and follow-up consultations through video or audio consultations (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.88-2.08; P=.17). Video consultations were less likely to be associated with a reduced overall consultation time (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.51-0.93; P=.02) and reduced time for patient note-taking compared to face-to-face visits (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.36-0.65; P Conclusions These results indicate that video consultations should be adopted frequently in the new remote clinical consultations. Previous experience with telemedicine was associated with a 2-fold confidence in treating acute conditions, less than a half of the perceived risk of misdiagnosis, and an increased ability to provide patients with health education and enhance the physician-patient rapport. Additionally, these results show that audio consultations are equivalent to video consultations in providing remote follow-up care to patients with chronic conditions. These findings may be beneficial to policymakers of e-health programs in low- and middle-income countries, where audio consultations may significantly increase access to geographically remote health services. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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