Appointment characteristics during COVID-19 restrictions: A Canadian allergy/immunology centre perspective

Abstract

81%), as well as those living far away from the hospital (19%). Less than 5% of the patients needed to be referred to do in-person visits.Telemedicine is an already validated tool. [1][2][3][4] The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to implement telehealth-focused processes to provide safe and convenient patient care, and both patients and allergists seem willing to continue to use it. 5 M. Morais-Almeida and C. S. Sousa participated in study design and conception and drafted the manuscript. All authors provided critical review of the manuscript and approved the final draft for publication.

The use of remote care during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic a perspective of Portuguese and Spanish physicians

“…Telephonic consultations (91%) were frequent in the analysed period. In previous studies in Canada and USA, telephonic consultations were also the main alternative to in-person consultations (36% and 75.9%) [9][10][11]. Yet, in all three studies, the proportion of in-person consultations was much lower (0.2-6.6%) than the one observed in our study (71%) [9][10][11].…”

“…Studies from Canada and USA reported the experience of allergy/immunology clinics during COVID-19 restrictions [9][10][11]. Both telephone consultations (36-75.9%) and video consultations (17-56.4%) were used as alternatives to in-person visits (0.2-6.6%) [9][10][11]. It is possible that the same pattern occurred in Portugal and Spain, nevertheless these data are not yet available.…”

Reply to “Appointment characteristics during COVID-19 restrictions: A Canadian allergy/immunology centre perspective”

“…We agree with Zhu et al that there should be a role for telemedicine beyond the pandemic, particularly for certain conditions, as previously discussed in both of our reports, 1 , 2 and we have shown that our physicians felt the majority of telemedicine encounters to be complete. 2 We have also found favorable patient feedback regarding telemedicine in a separate report of our COVID-19 experiences.…”

“…We hypothesize that Zhu et al 1 experienced less cancellations due to their longer study period. Our analyses covered the initial 3 weeks of the shutdown in New York State, 2 where patients were contending with employment, school, and childcare challenges, while also grappling with the possibility of a severe COVID surge in Western NY.…”

“…We appreciate the data provided by Zhu et al 1 regarding their experience among 2 academic allergists in Canada from March 16 to May 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surmise that there are notable differences between our practice characteristics accounting for our perspectives, 2 but ultimately agree that telemedicine encounters should have an enduring role in future allergy/immunology (A/I) care.…”