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Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated widespread changes in delivery of dental care. Telemedicine utilization increased overnight during this pandemic because of its ability to enhance access to oral healthcare, easily link to remote area, time management, low cos...

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Autores principales: Al Mohaya, Maha Ali, Almaziad, Mansour M, Al-Hamad, Khalid A, Mustafa, Mohammad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34707420
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S325777
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author Al Mohaya, Maha Ali
Almaziad, Mansour M
Al-Hamad, Khalid A
Mustafa, Mohammad
author_facet Al Mohaya, Maha Ali
Almaziad, Mansour M
Al-Hamad, Khalid A
Mustafa, Mohammad
author_sort Al Mohaya, Maha Ali
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated widespread changes in delivery of dental care. Telemedicine utilization increased overnight during this pandemic because of its ability to enhance access to oral healthcare, easily link to remote area, time management, low cost, etc. We aimed to identify the utilization of telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 pandemic and identify future impacts, potential challenges and barriers hindering the implementation of telemedicine. METHODS: The present cross-sectional electronically self-administered supplement-based survey Supplement Based Survey study was conducted among different professional levels of oral medicine involving consultants, specialists, and residents. The supplement includes demographic data, the current use of telemedicine, participant’s perspective on future implications, and potential barriers and limitations of telemedicine. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (α) to assess how closely related a set of items in our study. RESULTS: Of the total (N = 75) oral healthcare professionals, 52% were male, 70.7% were Saudi, 45.3% were consultant, 42.7% had 1–5 years of experience, 82.7% were practicing in urban areas, 93.3% stated COVID-19 affected their clinics, consultation was the major reason for the use of telemedicine before (50.7%) and during (72%) COVID-19 outbreak, 57.3% were communicating with their patients, 97.33% had not experienced any cyber risk, and 45% patients were satisfied with the telemedicine service; our data showed a high level of homogeneity (α = 0.82). The poor knowledge and training on telemedicine technologies may substantially (p < 0.05) impact the future implications of telemedicine in oral medicine practice. CONCLUSION: Telemedicine could be a useful adjunct for oral medicine practice, especially for remote diagnosis, consultation, referral, training and education. Our study emphasizes an urgent need to increase the awareness and education on how to utilize and practice telemedicine technologies among medical staff to maximize the efficiency.
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spelling pubmed-85447852021-10-26 Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty Al Mohaya, Maha Ali Almaziad, Mansour M Al-Hamad, Khalid A Mustafa, Mohammad Risk Manag Healthc Policy Original Research BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated widespread changes in delivery of dental care. Telemedicine utilization increased overnight during this pandemic because of its ability to enhance access to oral healthcare, easily link to remote area, time management, low cost, etc. We aimed to identify the utilization of telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 pandemic and identify future impacts, potential challenges and barriers hindering the implementation of telemedicine. METHODS: The present cross-sectional electronically self-administered supplement-based survey Supplement Based Survey study was conducted among different professional levels of oral medicine involving consultants, specialists, and residents. The supplement includes demographic data, the current use of telemedicine, participant’s perspective on future implications, and potential barriers and limitations of telemedicine. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (α) to assess how closely related a set of items in our study. RESULTS: Of the total (N = 75) oral healthcare professionals, 52% were male, 70.7% were Saudi, 45.3% were consultant, 42.7% had 1–5 years of experience, 82.7% were practicing in urban areas, 93.3% stated COVID-19 affected their clinics, consultation was the major reason for the use of telemedicine before (50.7%) and during (72%) COVID-19 outbreak, 57.3% were communicating with their patients, 97.33% had not experienced any cyber risk, and 45% patients were satisfied with the telemedicine service; our data showed a high level of homogeneity (α = 0.82). The poor knowledge and training on telemedicine technologies may substantially (p < 0.05) impact the future implications of telemedicine in oral medicine practice. CONCLUSION: Telemedicine could be a useful adjunct for oral medicine practice, especially for remote diagnosis, consultation, referral, training and education. Our study emphasizes an urgent need to increase the awareness and education on how to utilize and practice telemedicine technologies among medical staff to maximize the efficiency. Dove 2021-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8544785/ /pubmed/34707420 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S325777 Text en © 2021 Al Mohaya et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) ). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php).
spellingShingle Original Research
Al Mohaya, Maha Ali
Almaziad, Mansour M
Al-Hamad, Khalid A
Mustafa, Mohammad
Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title_full Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title_fullStr Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title_short Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty
title_sort telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners during covid-19 pandemic and its future impact on the specialty
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34707420
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S325777
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