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Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study

Despite all its promises, telemedicine is still not widely implemented in the care of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). The aim of this study is to investigate opportunities, barriers, acceptance, and preferences concerning telemedicine among RMD patients and professional stakeholders....

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Autores principales: Muehlensiepen, Felix, Knitza, Johannes, Marquardt, Wenke, May, Susann, Krusche, Martin, Hueber, Axel, Schwarz, Julian, Vuillerme, Nicolas, Heinze, Martin, Welcker, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948737
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413127
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author Muehlensiepen, Felix
Knitza, Johannes
Marquardt, Wenke
May, Susann
Krusche, Martin
Hueber, Axel
Schwarz, Julian
Vuillerme, Nicolas
Heinze, Martin
Welcker, Martin
author_facet Muehlensiepen, Felix
Knitza, Johannes
Marquardt, Wenke
May, Susann
Krusche, Martin
Hueber, Axel
Schwarz, Julian
Vuillerme, Nicolas
Heinze, Martin
Welcker, Martin
author_sort Muehlensiepen, Felix
collection PubMed
description Despite all its promises, telemedicine is still not widely implemented in the care of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). The aim of this study is to investigate opportunities, barriers, acceptance, and preferences concerning telemedicine among RMD patients and professional stakeholders. From November 2017 to December 2019, a participatory, mixed-methods study was conducted, consisting of (1) expert interviews (n = 27) with RMD patients and professional stakeholders, (2) a national paper-based patient survey (n = 766), and (3) focus groups (n = 2) with patient representatives and rheumatologists. The qualitative findings indicate that patients equate personal contact with physical face-to-face contact, which could be reduced by implementing telemedicine, thus negatively influencing the patient–doctor relationship. Correspondingly “no personal contact with the doctor” is the main reason (64%) why 38% of the surveyed patients refuse to try telemedicine. Professional stakeholders expect telemedicine to contribute to the effective allocation of scarce resources in rheumatology care. The main barriers reported by stakeholders were the scarcity of time resources in RMD care, the absence of physical examinations, and organizational challenges associated with the implementation of telemedicine in RMD care. While the exact integration of telemedicine into routine care has yet to be found, the consequences on the patient-physician relationship must be permanently considered.
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spelling pubmed-87013972021-12-24 Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study Muehlensiepen, Felix Knitza, Johannes Marquardt, Wenke May, Susann Krusche, Martin Hueber, Axel Schwarz, Julian Vuillerme, Nicolas Heinze, Martin Welcker, Martin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Despite all its promises, telemedicine is still not widely implemented in the care of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). The aim of this study is to investigate opportunities, barriers, acceptance, and preferences concerning telemedicine among RMD patients and professional stakeholders. From November 2017 to December 2019, a participatory, mixed-methods study was conducted, consisting of (1) expert interviews (n = 27) with RMD patients and professional stakeholders, (2) a national paper-based patient survey (n = 766), and (3) focus groups (n = 2) with patient representatives and rheumatologists. The qualitative findings indicate that patients equate personal contact with physical face-to-face contact, which could be reduced by implementing telemedicine, thus negatively influencing the patient–doctor relationship. Correspondingly “no personal contact with the doctor” is the main reason (64%) why 38% of the surveyed patients refuse to try telemedicine. Professional stakeholders expect telemedicine to contribute to the effective allocation of scarce resources in rheumatology care. The main barriers reported by stakeholders were the scarcity of time resources in RMD care, the absence of physical examinations, and organizational challenges associated with the implementation of telemedicine in RMD care. While the exact integration of telemedicine into routine care has yet to be found, the consequences on the patient-physician relationship must be permanently considered. MDPI 2021-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8701397/ /pubmed/34948737 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413127 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Muehlensiepen, Felix
Knitza, Johannes
Marquardt, Wenke
May, Susann
Krusche, Martin
Hueber, Axel
Schwarz, Julian
Vuillerme, Nicolas
Heinze, Martin
Welcker, Martin
Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title_full Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title_fullStr Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title_full_unstemmed Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title_short Opportunities and Barriers of Telemedicine in Rheumatology: A Participatory, Mixed-Methods Study
title_sort opportunities and barriers of telemedicine in rheumatology: a participatory, mixed-methods study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948737
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413127
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