McCranie Alec S, Haas Evan J, Aryanpour Zain, Egan Katie G, Yu Jason W, Winocour Julian, Mathes David W, Kaoutzanis Christodoulos
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
Mhealth. 2025 Jun 25;11:33. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-24-77. eCollection 2025.
Telehealth has gained traction since the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) virus [coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)] pandemic. Telehealth is especially useful in plastic surgery, given the visual nature of many plastic surgery problems. However, research on the accessibility of virtual consultations in plastic surgery is limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accessibility of initial virtual consultations in academic and community-based plastic surgery practices through evaluation of online resources and to discuss the implications of these findings as they apply to patient access to care. We evaluated the websites of academic and community-based plastic surgery practices in the USA. All practices were contacted for confirmation of the availability of virtual consultation. Data was collected on practice characteristics, including region, availability of virtual consultations on practice websites, and types of services offered by community-based programs. Standard statistical analysis was performed using chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. A total of 88 academic and 500 community-based plastic surgery practice websites were evaluated. Community-based practices offered more virtual consultations than academic practices (64.5% 25.0%, P<0.001). As it pertains to telehealth marketing, overall availability of virtual consultations on the websites of academic and community-based practices was lacking and there was no difference between the two groups (21.6% 13.8%, respectively, P=0.06). Community-based practices that offered only cosmetic surgery offered more virtual consultations than those that offered both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery (75.0% 54.0%, P<0.001). Our findings suggest that community-based and academic plastic surgery practices are under-utilizing telehealth and telehealth marketing as it applies to virtual consultations. Despite the widespread adoption of telehealth since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is high variability in the accessibility of virtual consultations in plastic surgery across academic and community-based practices and broader implementation should be considered to increase transparency of services and accessibility to care.
自严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）病毒[冠状病毒病2019（COVID-19）]大流行以来，远程医疗越来越受到关注。鉴于许多整形手术问题具有视觉性质，远程医疗在整形手术中特别有用。然而，关于整形手术中虚拟会诊可及性的研究有限。本研究的目的是通过评估在线资源来评估学术性和社区性整形手术机构初次虚拟会诊的可及性，并讨论这些发现对患者获得医疗服务的影响。我们评估了美国学术性和社区性整形手术机构的网站。所有机构均被联系以确认虚拟会诊的可用性。收集了机构特征数据，包括地区、机构网站上虚拟会诊的可用性以及社区项目提供的服务类型。使用卡方检验和Fisher精确检验进行标准统计分析。共评估了88个学术性和500个社区性整形手术机构网站。社区性机构提供的虚拟会诊比学术性机构更多（64.5%对25.0%，P<0.001）。在远程医疗营销方面，学术性和社区性机构网站上虚拟会诊的总体可用性不足，两组之间没有差异（分别为21.6%和13.8%，P=0.06）。仅提供美容手术的社区性机构提供的虚拟会诊比同时提供美容和重建手术的机构更多（75.0%对54.0%，P<0.001）。我们的研究结果表明，学术性和社区性整形手术机构在适用于虚拟会诊的远程医疗和远程医疗营销方面利用不足。尽管自COVID-19大流行以来远程医疗得到了广泛应用，但学术性和社区性机构在整形手术中虚拟会诊的可及性存在很大差异，应考虑更广泛地实施以提高服务透明度和医疗可及性。
