Use of telehealth for HIV care in Italy: Are doctors and patients on the same page? A cross-sectional study
| Autor: | Elena Visconti, Nicoletta Ciccarelli, Valentina Delle Donne, Domenico Faliero, Valentina Massaroni, Simona Di Giambenedetto, Alberto Borghetti, Enrica Tamburrini, Arturo Ciccullo |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Telemedicine Isolation (health care) Cross-sectional study education Stigma (botany) Health Informatics HIV Infections Telehealth Settore MED/17 - MALATTIE INFETTIVE Physicians Medicine Humans Disease management (health) Practice Patterns Physicians' Pandemics health care economics and organizations Modalities business.industry AIDS Care HIV COVID-19 Patient Preference Cross-Sectional Studies Italy Family medicine Cohort business |
| Zdroj: | International journal of medical informatics. 156 |
| ISSN: | 1872-8243 |
| Popis: | Background The COVID-19 pandemic has changed outpatient clinical practice, which has led to the need defining digital healthcare modalities to provide telehealth services. The aim of our study was to explore opinions about HIV management via telehealth in a representative, southern central Italian cohort of individuals with HIV (PLWH) and doctors involved in the treatment process. Methods We enrolled 80 PLWH who have never used telehealth tools and 60 doctors, who administered an anonymous self-report questionnaire to investigate their opinions about telehealth service use. Results Most of the doctors and patients indicated that they would use telehealth services; however, 88.3% of the doctors and 40% of the PLWH did not want to substitute personal visits with telehealth services. Unlike PLWH, physicians seemed to agree with most of the possible risks of telehealth, such as patients' isolation from the hospital system (71.7%), interaction difficulty (46.7%) and lower quality of patient assessment (63.3%). The doctors focused on the qualitative aspects of telehealth services reducing patients' exposure to stigma (61.7%), improving quality of patient care (41.7%), and improving privacy (58.3%). By contrast, patients focused on the quantitative aspects of telehealth services improving timely access to care (44%), time saving (63%) and improving interaction with doctor (43%). Conclusions Both PLWH (especially older patients and those with longer experience of disease management) and doctors welcome the use of telehealth services but disagree using it to substitute medical consultation in person focusing on different possible benefits and risks of telehealth depending on the needs expressed. Thus, our results suggest the need to initiate and expand communication about telehealth between doctors and patients. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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