Experiences With Telehealth Followup in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Qualitative Interview Study

Abstract

The participants had positive perceptions of the PRO-based telehealth followup and saw it as a flexible and resource-saving solution. They reported disadvantages related to missing face-to-face contact with health professionals. The 2 typologies, the keen and the reluctant patient, help us understand the patients' different needs, wishes, and abilities to take part in telehealth followup. Our findings reveal a need for more insight into how telehealth followup could be integrated in routine clinical practice, paying special attention to how reluctant patients may be supported.

Patients’ experiences regarding self-monitoring of the disease course: an observational pilot study in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases at a rheumatology outpatient clinic in The Netherlands

“…Adequate disease-related knowledge is important, since it may influence patients’ decisions regarding treatment, compliance and self-management performance, 31 as well as the ability to recognise signs, symptoms and patterns, 10 which is supported by a study about experiences with telehealth in patients with RA. 32 All of these aspects are essential in shared decision-making, 33 while also being beneficial to the efficiency of consultations. From the perspective of the HCP, it is important to give feedback to the patients about the results of self-monitoring during outpatient consultations, a fact that was emphasised by our study participants during the interviews.…”

COVID-19: What Do Rheumatologists Need to Know?

“…Both findings are reassuring for rheumatologists attempting to rapidly switch to a virtual-based care setting. Overall, telehealth was received positively by patients [ 76 ]. However, concerns existed regarding the absence of face-to-face contact with healthcare professionals.…”

“…However, concerns existed regarding the absence of face-to-face contact with healthcare professionals. Patients also differed in their acceptance of tele-health, described by Knudsen et al [ 76 ] as the ‘keen’ and ‘reluctant’ patient, and more research is needed to assist physicians in how to best accommodate the different values and preferences of patients.…”

Telemedicine Use by Pediatric Rheumatologists during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Pediatric rheumatologists are faced with multiple issues in health care delivery and availability 4 and a few reports have begun to explore telemedicine within this specialty in regards to patient acceptability 5 along with cost and time effectiveness. 6 The historical paucity of telemedicine adoption within this specialty may be for a number of reasons including the reliance on patient-reported outcomes in addition to objective clinical ndings 7 and lack of standardization of telemedicine exam practices. 8 With the rapid implementation of telemedicine over the previous several months, there is a unique opportunity to evaluate telemedicine use in the pediatric rheumatology setting.…”