Malhotra Kunal, Sivaraman Aparna, Regunath Hariharan
Department of Medicine, University of Missouri System, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Rock Bridge High School, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Telemed Rep. 2020 Nov 18;1(1):16-21. doi: 10.1089/tmr.2020.0003. eCollection 2020.
Telemedicine use has increased due to stay-at-home orders during the novel coronavirus 2019 pandemic. We explored ambulatory provider's perception on telemedicine. An anonymized survey was e-mailed to physicians and midlevel providers of our university hospital ambulatory clinics to assess current use, preferences for future use, and satisfaction with televisits. Of all providers, 249 responded (response rate 24%, 121 [48.6%] men, 177 [71.1%] attending physicians, 43 [17.2%] trainees, and 29 [11.6%] midlevel providers). Most respondents (120, 48.2%) belonged to subspecialties in medicine. At the time of the survey, 168 (67.5%) were using telemedicine for less than half of all visits and had video capabilities, of whom 224 (90%) considered it to be effective for return visits and 37 (15%) perceived it to be effective for new patients, 217 (87.1%) wanted to continue with telemedicine practice, and 113 (45.4%) preferred to use telemedicine for more than a quarter of their future patients even after the pandemic. Most (194 [77.9%]) were satisfied with telemedicine and we found no differences among specialties. Those with audio-only visits reported least effectiveness for new patient evaluation ( < 0.001) and overall provider satisfaction ( = 0.02) when compared with others. Those who saw more than a quarter of their patients through televisits desired to increase their future televisits to >50% including new patients ( < 0.001). There is widespread interest in telemedicine in all specialties. Acceptance is high for return visits, but low for new patient visits. Improvement in technology to have both audio and video capability consistently may foster further interest toward increasing telemedicine in the future.
在2019年新型冠状病毒大流行期间，由于居家隔离令，远程医疗的使用有所增加。我们探讨了门诊医疗服务提供者对远程医疗的看法。我们通过电子邮件向我校医院门诊诊所的医生和中级医疗服务提供者发送了一份匿名调查问卷，以评估当前的使用情况、对未来使用的偏好以及对视频问诊的满意度。在所有医疗服务提供者中，有249人回复（回复率为24%，其中男性121人[48.6%]，主治医生177人[71.1%]，实习生43人[17.2%]，中级医疗服务提供者29人[11.6%]）。大多数受访者（120人，48.2%）属于医学亚专业。在调查时，168人（67.5%）在不到一半的问诊中使用了远程医疗且具备视频功能，其中224人（90%）认为其对复诊有效，37人（15%）认为其对新患者有效，217人（87.1%）希望继续开展远程医疗实践，113人（45.4%）即使在疫情结束后仍希望在超过四分之一的未来患者中使用远程医疗。大多数人（194人，77.9%）对远程医疗感到满意，我们发现各专业之间没有差异。与其他受访者相比，仅进行音频问诊的受访者在新患者评估方面的有效性最低（<0.001），总体医疗服务提供者满意度也最低（=0.02）。通过视频问诊看过超过四分之一患者的人希望在未来将视频问诊比例提高到>50%，包括新患者（<0.001）。所有专业对远程医疗都有广泛的兴趣。复诊的接受度较高，但新患者问诊的接受度较低。持续改进技术以同时具备音频和视频功能可能会在未来进一步激发对增加远程医疗使用的兴趣。
