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The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon

The COVID-19 pandemic forced physicians to quickly adapt and find ways to provide their usual offline services by using online tools. We aimed to understand how physicians adapted to the sudden need for telehealth and if their perception of telehealth changed due to their experience during the COVID...

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Autores principales: Helou, Samar, El Helou, Elie, Abou-Khalil, Victoria, Wakim, Jad, El Helou, Jeanine, Daher, Alain, El Hachem, Charline
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7370008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32640652
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134866
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author Helou, Samar
El Helou, Elie
Abou-Khalil, Victoria
Wakim, Jad
El Helou, Jeanine
Daher, Alain
El Hachem, Charline
author_facet Helou, Samar
El Helou, Elie
Abou-Khalil, Victoria
Wakim, Jad
El Helou, Jeanine
Daher, Alain
El Hachem, Charline
author_sort Helou, Samar
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic forced physicians to quickly adapt and find ways to provide their usual offline services by using online tools. We aimed to understand how physicians adapted to the sudden need for telehealth and if their perception of telehealth changed due to their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an exploratory sequential mixed-methods study. We interviewed five Lebanese physicians and thematically analyzed the interviews. We developed a questionnaire based on the analysis results and administered it online to physicians in Lebanon. In total, 140 responses were collected. We found that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians engaged in more telehealth activities in the realms of telemedicine, public awareness, continuing medical education, research, administration, and teaching. They also expanded their repertoire of information-technology tools. Our results also show that there was a significant shift in the physicians’ perceptions, indicating greater openness and willingness to adopt telehealth services. However, a significant amount of skepticism and uncertainty regarding telemedicine remains, especially concerning its efficiency, safety, and the adequacy of existing regulations. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for health IT policy makers, developers, and researchers, to sustain the continuity of telehealth activities beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-73700082020-07-21 The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon Helou, Samar El Helou, Elie Abou-Khalil, Victoria Wakim, Jad El Helou, Jeanine Daher, Alain El Hachem, Charline Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic forced physicians to quickly adapt and find ways to provide their usual offline services by using online tools. We aimed to understand how physicians adapted to the sudden need for telehealth and if their perception of telehealth changed due to their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an exploratory sequential mixed-methods study. We interviewed five Lebanese physicians and thematically analyzed the interviews. We developed a questionnaire based on the analysis results and administered it online to physicians in Lebanon. In total, 140 responses were collected. We found that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians engaged in more telehealth activities in the realms of telemedicine, public awareness, continuing medical education, research, administration, and teaching. They also expanded their repertoire of information-technology tools. Our results also show that there was a significant shift in the physicians’ perceptions, indicating greater openness and willingness to adopt telehealth services. However, a significant amount of skepticism and uncertainty regarding telemedicine remains, especially concerning its efficiency, safety, and the adequacy of existing regulations. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for health IT policy makers, developers, and researchers, to sustain the continuity of telehealth activities beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. MDPI 2020-07-06 2020-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7370008/ /pubmed/32640652 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134866 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Helou, Samar
El Helou, Elie
Abou-Khalil, Victoria
Wakim, Jad
El Helou, Jeanine
Daher, Alain
El Hachem, Charline
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title_full The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title_fullStr The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title_short The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physicians’ Use and Perception of Telehealth: The Case of Lebanon
title_sort effect of the covid-19 pandemic on physicians’ use and perception of telehealth: the case of lebanon
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7370008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32640652
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134866
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