Telemedicine Practice in Saudi Arabia During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased use of telemedicine. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate attitudes and behaviors of licensed physicians in the region to telemedicine.

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional design using an electronic survey as the primary tool was done. The questionnaire had a demographic component of the respondent (first part), covering age, specialty, and experience with telemedicine during the COVID pandemic, and a second part, which was in the form of a Likert scale, covering perceptions related to telemedicine. The Likert scale itself had two main areas: (1) attitudes toward telemedicine and (2) perceived barriers.

RESULTS

There were 392 valid responses of which 228 (58.1%) had used some form of telemedicine (other than standard phone calls) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common platforms used for telemedicine include WhatsApp (211, 53.8%), Zoom (131, 33.4%), Microsoft Teams (27, 6.2%), Sehha App (65, 16.5%), Email (84, 21.4%). There was a strong agreement on the following statements: "Telemedicine can reduce unnecessary outpatient visits" (87.5%), "Effectiveness of telemedicine depends on the specialty" (89.5%), and "Telemedicine can be used to monitor chronic patients from home" (88.3%). Concerning the barriers to telemedicine, the ones having the most concordance were technological limitations (66.6%) and concerns of diagnostic reliability (66.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

The responses from our study seem to suggest that while the attitudes toward telemedicine are positive, practicing physicians are concerned about a perceived lack of clarity regarding related legal frameworks and barriers such as technological issues, cultural factors, and diagnostic concordance.