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An IM injection of a mega dose of cholecalciferol is a safe and effective therapy for treatment of VDD rickets in infants and toddlers with normalization of all the biochemical parameters and healing of radiological manifestations. Measurement of serum 25(OH)D level is highly recommended in all short children with a clear need for a general vitamin D supplementation for all infants and young children in Qatar.

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<.001). Previous experience with telemedicine was significantly associated with a lower perceived risk of misdiagnosis (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.3-0.71; P<.001) and an enhanced physician-patient rapport (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.26-4.9; P=.008). 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.

Background: Despite the great efforts done by the government, there has been an increase in the number of people adopting smoking habit, among them health care professionals. Objectives: The aims of this work are 1) to assess the attitudes, behaviors, and risk perceptions among primary health care providers in the ambulatory health services in Abu Dhabi towards smoking and 2) to assess the impact of their smoking status on their practices of smoking counseling. Rationale: The justification of the research was that it provides an understanding on the influence of the smoking behaviour of health care providers and their eventual service delivery especially counselling smoking patients. Subjects and Methods: Self-administered descriptive questionnaires were used to collect data. They were distributed to doctors and nurses who consented to participate and the filled questionnaires were collected in sealed envelopes. Out of 137 health care professionals who were approached, 122 responded (participation rate of 89 %). 47% were physicians and 53% were nurses. Results: The results showed that, among the studied group the rate of smoking was 8.3 % with influence from friends being cited as the greatest contributing factor. Cigarette smoking was used by the 87.5% of the participants and 25% used "Shisha". Irrespective of its adverse effects, most of healthcare providers have a positive attitude towards smoking cessation policy. An inadequacy in training these personnel on how to counsel their patients with regard to smoking cessation. Conclusion: A pre-service as well as continuous smoking cessation training is needed in order to change the attitude of the primary health care providers and enhance their counselling techniques.

Background Telemedicine is a care delivery modality that has the potential to broaden the reach and flexibility of health care services. In the United Arab Emirates, telemedicine services are mainly delivered through either integrated hospital outpatient department (OPDs) or community clinics. However, it is unknown if patients’ perceptions of, and satisfaction with, telemedicine services differ between these two types of health care systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective We aimed to explore the differences in patients’ perceptions of, and satisfaction with, telemedicine between hospital OPDs and community clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also aimed to identify patient- or visit-related characteristics contributing to patient satisfaction with telemedicine. Methods In this cross-sectional study that was conducted at Abu Dhabi health care centers, we invited outpatients aged 18 years or over, who completed a telemedicine visit during the COVID-19 pandemic, to participate in our study. Patients’ perceptions of, and satisfaction with, telemedicine regarding the two system types (ie, hospital OPDs and community clinics) were assessed using an online survey that was sent as a link through the SMS system. Regression models were used to describe the association between patient- and visit-related characteristics, as well as the perception of, and satisfaction with, telemedicine services. Results A total of 515 patients participated in this survey. Patients’ satisfaction with telemedicine services was equally high among the settings, with no statistically significant difference between the two setting types (hospital OPDs: 253/343, 73.8%; community clinics: 114/172, 66.3%; P =.19). Video consultation was significantly associated with increased patient satisfaction (odds ratio [OR] 2.57, 95% CI 1.04-6.33; P =.04) and patients’ support of the transition to telemedicine use during and after the pandemic (OR 2.88, 95% CI 1.18-7.07; P =.02). Patients who used video consultations were more likely to report that telemedicine improved access to health care services (OR 3.06, 95% CI 1.71-8.03; P =.02), reduced waiting times and travel costs (OR 4.94, 95% CI 1.15-21.19; P =.03), addressed patients’ needs (OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.13-6.11; P =.03), and eased expression of patients’ medical concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic (OR 2.19, 95% CI 0.89-5.38; P =.09). Surprisingly, middle-aged patients were two times more likely to be satisfied with telemedicine services (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.09-4.14; P =.03), as compared to any other age group in this study. Conclusions These findings suggest that patient satisfaction was unaffected by the health system setting in which patients received...