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Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria

Introduction: With the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has been experiencing an extraordinary state of emergency. As patients entering a doctor’s practice can potentially infect medical staff and other patients, using digital alternatives wherever possible is a potential sol...

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Autores principales: Kletečka-Pulker, Maria, Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine, Fassl, Anna, Klager, Elisabeth, Willschke, Harald, Klomfar, Sophie, Wochele-Thoma, Thomas, Schaden, Eva, Atanasov, Atanas G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001477/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030280
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author Kletečka-Pulker, Maria
Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine
Fassl, Anna
Klager, Elisabeth
Willschke, Harald
Klomfar, Sophie
Wochele-Thoma, Thomas
Schaden, Eva
Atanasov, Atanas G.
author_facet Kletečka-Pulker, Maria
Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine
Fassl, Anna
Klager, Elisabeth
Willschke, Harald
Klomfar, Sophie
Wochele-Thoma, Thomas
Schaden, Eva
Atanasov, Atanas G.
author_sort Kletečka-Pulker, Maria
collection PubMed
description Introduction: With the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has been experiencing an extraordinary state of emergency. As patients entering a doctor’s practice can potentially infect medical staff and other patients, using digital alternatives wherever possible is a potential solution to avoiding face-to-face encounters. In these conditions, telemedicine is becoming increasingly relevant. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine telemedicine use and gathered experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. Materials and Methods: In June 2020, a representative group of Austrian respondents (n = 1000) was asked via online survey whether they had contacted a doctor during spring of 2020, and, if so, whether they had used a telemedical method to do so. The survey also reflected gathered experiences and degrees of satisfaction with the use of telemedicine. Results: A third (33%) of those who contacted a doctor during the target period did so using telemedical tools. The majority of those with previous telehealth experience were satisfied with the help they received. Patients commonly used a telephone to contact their doctors. The overall assessment of telemedical aids tended to be positive, with more than half (53%) of those surveyed seeing significant advantages, and a 90% satisfaction rate among the respondents who used telehealth services. Conclusion: The outcomes from this work hint at fairly high acceptance of telemedical communication tools in the studied group of the Austrian population. Based on the high rate of satisfaction among patients who used telehealth, it is expected that the use of telehealth services will increase further in the near future.
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spelling pubmed-80014772021-03-28 Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria Kletečka-Pulker, Maria Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine Fassl, Anna Klager, Elisabeth Willschke, Harald Klomfar, Sophie Wochele-Thoma, Thomas Schaden, Eva Atanasov, Atanas G. Healthcare (Basel) Article Introduction: With the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has been experiencing an extraordinary state of emergency. As patients entering a doctor’s practice can potentially infect medical staff and other patients, using digital alternatives wherever possible is a potential solution to avoiding face-to-face encounters. In these conditions, telemedicine is becoming increasingly relevant. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine telemedicine use and gathered experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. Materials and Methods: In June 2020, a representative group of Austrian respondents (n = 1000) was asked via online survey whether they had contacted a doctor during spring of 2020, and, if so, whether they had used a telemedical method to do so. The survey also reflected gathered experiences and degrees of satisfaction with the use of telemedicine. Results: A third (33%) of those who contacted a doctor during the target period did so using telemedical tools. The majority of those with previous telehealth experience were satisfied with the help they received. Patients commonly used a telephone to contact their doctors. The overall assessment of telemedical aids tended to be positive, with more than half (53%) of those surveyed seeing significant advantages, and a 90% satisfaction rate among the respondents who used telehealth services. Conclusion: The outcomes from this work hint at fairly high acceptance of telemedical communication tools in the studied group of the Austrian population. Based on the high rate of satisfaction among patients who used telehealth, it is expected that the use of telehealth services will increase further in the near future. MDPI 2021-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8001477/ /pubmed/33806673 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030280 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Kletečka-Pulker, Maria
Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine
Fassl, Anna
Klager, Elisabeth
Willschke, Harald
Klomfar, Sophie
Wochele-Thoma, Thomas
Schaden, Eva
Atanasov, Atanas G.
Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title_full Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title_fullStr Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title_full_unstemmed Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title_short Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria
title_sort telehealth in times of covid-19: spotlight on austria
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001477/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030280
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