Telehealth uptake in general practice as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Snoswell, Centaine L.; Caffery, Liam J; Haydon, Helen M; Thomas, Emma; Smith, Anthony C

doi:10.1071/ah20183

Cited by 118 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…COVID-19 expedited several planned changes, but there was limited opportunity at the height of the crisis response to fully embed the breadth of necessary support functions or ensure patients and staff had the appropriate training and sufficient equipment. The findings presented here largely reflect those previously reported in the literature [2][3][4] while contributing more detailed lessons regarding the implementation and support required to embed virtual models of care delivery.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…1,2 Conducting patient consultations via telephone or videoconference provides an alternative to patients who may have difficulty in attending appointments in person due to physical or geographical barriers. 2,3 Simultaneously, countries including Australia are witnessing a continuing rise in the burden of chronic diseases on population health and healthcare systems. [4][5][6] In response, healthcare providers are exploring and testing innovative ways of using virtual or remote methods for providing patient diagnosis, treatment and education, supporting and monitoring patients, improving access to health services, promoting treatment adherence and managing chronic disease.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4,5,[7][8][9] The community and health system response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially social distancing requirements, has further reinforced the importance of considering alternative models of care, particularly opportunities to deliver more care virtually where it is safe and appropriate to do so. 3,10 Accordingly, Gold Coast Health in Queensland was prompted to find safe, alternative means of delivering care and communicating with patients in its community-based chronic disease programs. This response expedited some technological and service delivery changes that were already in the planning stages and provided an opportunity for these staff and patient groups to learn from a rapid rollout of virtual health, defined here as video and telephone consultations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Virtual models of chronic disease management: lessons from the experiences of virtual care during the COVID-19 response

Smithson¹,

Roche²,

Wicker³

2021

Aust. Health Rev.

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Objective. This study examined Gold Coast staff and patient experiences with the rapid expansion of a virtual model of chronic disease management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. The study undertook a survey of enrolled patients (n ¼ 24) and focus groups with clinical and administrative staff (n ¼ 44) delivering chronic disease programs at Gold Coast Health in Queensland. The study also examined routinely collected activity data for the chronic disease programs before COVID (January-February 2020) and for the first 3 months of the COVID-19 response (March-May 2020). Results. Chronic disease programs continued to provide similar numbers of appointments over the COVID-19 response period, but there was a marked increase in the proportion of appointments that were delivered virtually, either by telephone or video conference. Most patients were satisfied with their virtual care experiences and felt that their health care needs were met. Conclusions. The COVID-19 response provided an opportunity to learn and further develop models of virtual care. Staff and patients were generally supportive of continuing to include virtual appointments in the future. Ongoing concerns were predominantly around the support available to patients and staff to ensure they are trained and equipped to manage the technology and new mode of communicating. What is known about the topic? Emerging evidence suggests that virtual models of health care delivery, such as telephone and video consultations and remote patient monitoring, can be safe and cost-effective alternatives to traditional face-to-face chronic disease management programs. Virtual care is associated with equal or improved clinical outcomes, as well as efficiency improvements, such as reduced failure to attend rates. What does this paper add? The increasing burden of chronic disease across Australia, as well as the need to minimise the risk of vulnerable patient groups attending in-hospital appointments where it is safe and appropriate to do so, means that expanding the delivery of virtual chronic disease management will become increasingly necessary. The results of this study provide an opportunity to learn from a rapid rollout of virtual care for these staff and patient groups and will help inform advances in this area. What are the implications for practitioners? Existing evidence, demographic pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic response all point to virtual care as a viable and safe alternative to traditional models of chronic disease management. The lessons presented here provide more detailed guidance on the support that staff and patients require to ensure virtual care is a seamless and safe alternative or adjunct to traditional chronic disease management programs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Virtual models of chronic disease management: lessons from the experiences of virtual care during the COVID-19 response

Smithson¹,

Roche²,

Wicker³

2021

Aust. Health Rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Given the substantial increase in the use of telephone items, further research is needed to evaluate the quality of this particular telephone service and preferences of both clinicians and patients. 9 The telehealth items examined were primarily used by women, which corresponds to 70% of the total utilisation. However, even before the COVID-19 period, women tended to access these services at higher rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of telehealth mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jayawardana

Gannon

2021

Aust. Health Rev.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, specific mental health telehealth services in Australia have been an important source of help for the increasingly stressed population. This study examined trends in the uptake of telehealth items for mental health during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic using administrative Medicare data. During the peak of the pandemic there was a 50% reduction in the in-person consultations for mental health but also a substantial increase in uptake largely of the newly introduced temporary Medicare Benefits Schedule telehealth services. Further, the use of telehealth varied across age, gender and state/territory. These findings have important implications for the allocation of resources for telehealth, both now, and into the post-COVID-19 era.

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“…The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted normal medical activities worldwide. To help decrease the spread of COVID-19, online health care platforms have been rapidly used by governments and users [40,41]. Currently, the Haodf website primarily provides 2 internet-based effort tools for doctors to interact with patients (doctors' quality of service and mutual help groups).…”

Section: Principal Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Interactive Tools in Online Health Care Communities: Social Exchange Theory Perspective (Preprint)

Ren¹,

Ma²

2020

Preprint

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BACKGROUND

Online health consultation service is of great significance for improving medical service quality and improving doctor-patient relationship. Doctors in China regularly interact with their patients (or, at least, those who make inquiries) online rather than primarily in-person. The prosperity of the platform depends on the continuous participation and efforts of doctors, and obtaining satisfactory economic returns is an important motivation for doctors' continuous participation.

OBJECTIVE

This study is of guiding significance to platform service providers, doctors and patients in the OHCs.

METHODS

Doctor's participation behavior is a process in which professional capital participates in social exchange for economic return. Based on social exchange theory, this paper establishes an online effort exchange model for doctors. From March 5, 2019, the data of doctors treating five diseases of hepatitis B, diabetes, rhinitis, cervical spondylosis and lung cancer in Beijing were collected on the website of good doctor. The data collection lasted for 10 days, involving 253 doctors. We analyzed quantitative data by SPSS version 20 using descriptive and logistic regression analysis techniques.

RESULTS

Research shows that the number of doctors’ answers has a significant positive impact on income, and the number of topic groups is strongly affected by the degree of disease privacy. When the degree of disease privacy increases, the influence of the number of topic set by doctors on the income of online consultation turns from negative correlation to positive correlation, indicating that when patients consult diseases with low degree of privacy, the more topics, the lower the doctor income; while when patients consult diseases with high degree of privacy, the more topics, the higher the income.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is of guiding significance to platform service providers, doctors and patients in the OHCs. The online health-care platform should provide more and better online doctor-patient interaction tools for showing doctors’ efforts through policy tilt and system design; for privacy diseases, doctors who devote more energy and time to topic group setting have more advantages and are more likely to get better incomes; patients who receive online health-care services can choose doctors who reply timely and carefully instead of pursuing doctors who have high status.

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Telehealth uptake in general practice as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Cited by 118 publications

References 10 publications

Virtual models of chronic disease management: lessons from the experiences of virtual care during the COVID-19 response

Virtual models of chronic disease management: lessons from the experiences of virtual care during the COVID-19 response

Use of telehealth mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Effectiveness of Interactive Tools in Online Health Care Communities: Social Exchange Theory Perspective (Preprint)

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