Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Telemedicine Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

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.

GP perceptions of telehealth services in Australia: a qualitative study

“…11,12 The natural experiment of telehealth use during COVID-19 has created opportunities to learn from new experiences, 13,14 and there has been emerging research exploring telehealth in primary care. [15][16][17][18] As this research progresses, an in-depth understanding of GP perceptions regarding telehealth remains limited in the Australian setting. This study investigated GP perceptions on providing telehealth (telephone and videoconsultations) services in Australia.…”

Patients’ Perceptions and Satisfaction with the Outpatient Telemedicine Clinics during COVID-19 Era in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, a high chance of misdiagnosis due to lack of physical examination and less personal rapport with patients were the disadvantages perceived by the physicians. Furthermore, the physicians were more confident in delivering care with combined audio-video care than with audio care alone [ 38 ]. Another study that assessed perceived advantages and disadvantages among Saudi physicians in the Taif region showed that almost a third of the participants believed that telemedicine increased the effectiveness of therapeutic intervention and 44% perceived that virtual care improved patient care.…”

The integration of mHealth technologies in telemedicine during the COVID-19 era: A cross-sectional study

“…While the implication of telemedicine mobile applications still faces certain challenges and barriers [ 23 – 26 ], adoption of these technologies has been on the rise [ 9 ]. Our sister study has previously reported on physician’s attitude and confidence towards telemedicine in treating acute conditions, providing patients with health education and enhancing the patient-physician rapport [ 27 ]. This study on the other hand, aimed to explore the impact of using a mobile application to manage and attend patient-physician consultations on the overall satisfaction of the patients using telemedicine in Abu Dhabi.…”