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Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective

BACKGROUND: In the era of COVID-19, utilization of telemedicine has dramatically increased. In addition to reduced travel times, patient expenses, and work or school days missed, telemedicine allows clinicians to provide continued care while minimizing face-to-face interactions, maintaining social d...

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Autores principales: Edgerley, Sarah, Zhu, Rongbo, Quidwai, Ariba, Kim, Harold, Jeimy, Samira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8860358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35189969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13223-022-00657-3
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author Edgerley, Sarah
Zhu, Rongbo
Quidwai, Ariba
Kim, Harold
Jeimy, Samira
author_facet Edgerley, Sarah
Zhu, Rongbo
Quidwai, Ariba
Kim, Harold
Jeimy, Samira
author_sort Edgerley, Sarah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In the era of COVID-19, utilization of telemedicine has dramatically increased. In addition to reduced travel times, patient expenses, and work or school days missed, telemedicine allows clinicians to provide continued care while minimizing face-to-face interactions, maintaining social distancing, and limiting potential COVID-19 exposures. Clinical Immunology and Allergy (CIA), like many specialties, has adapted to incorporate telemedicine into practice. Previous studies have demonstrated similar patient satisfaction between virtual and in-person visits. However, evidence from fully publicly funded health care systems such as Canada has been limited. METHODS: We performed a quality improvement (QI) initiative to assess the feasibility of telemedicine. Between 1 March and 30 September 2020, patient encounters of two academic allergists at a single institution in London, Ontario, Canada were analyzed. Assessments were categorized into in-person or telemedicine appointments. A random sample of patients assessed virtually completed a voluntary patient satisfaction survey. Qualitative analysis was performed on survey comments. RESULTS: In total 3342 patients were seen. The majority were adults (n = 2162, or 64.7%) and female (n = 1872, or 56%). 1543 (46.2%) assessments were virtual and 1799 (53.8%) assessments were in-person. 67 of 100 random patient surveys sent to those in the virtual assessment group were completed. 89.6% (n = 60) agreed or strongly agreed when asked if they were satisfied with their telemedicine visit. 64.2% (n = 43) felt they received the same level of care compared to in-person assessments and 91% (n = 61) stated they would attend another virtual appointment. 95.4% (n = 62) of patients reported saving time with virtual assessment, the majority (n = 42, 62.7%) estimating between 1–4 h saved. Reported shortcomings included technical difficulties, “feeling rushed”, and missing in-person interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Our quality improvement initiative demonstrated high patient satisfaction and time savings with virtual assessment in a publicly funded health care system. Studies suggest that CIA may be uniquely situated to benefit from permanent integration of virtual care into regular practice for both new and follow-up appointments. We anticipate continued increased utilization of telemedicine, signifying a lasting beneficial change in the delivery of healthcare.
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spelling pubmed-88603582022-02-22 Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective Edgerley, Sarah Zhu, Rongbo Quidwai, Ariba Kim, Harold Jeimy, Samira Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol Research BACKGROUND: In the era of COVID-19, utilization of telemedicine has dramatically increased. In addition to reduced travel times, patient expenses, and work or school days missed, telemedicine allows clinicians to provide continued care while minimizing face-to-face interactions, maintaining social distancing, and limiting potential COVID-19 exposures. Clinical Immunology and Allergy (CIA), like many specialties, has adapted to incorporate telemedicine into practice. Previous studies have demonstrated similar patient satisfaction between virtual and in-person visits. However, evidence from fully publicly funded health care systems such as Canada has been limited. METHODS: We performed a quality improvement (QI) initiative to assess the feasibility of telemedicine. Between 1 March and 30 September 2020, patient encounters of two academic allergists at a single institution in London, Ontario, Canada were analyzed. Assessments were categorized into in-person or telemedicine appointments. A random sample of patients assessed virtually completed a voluntary patient satisfaction survey. Qualitative analysis was performed on survey comments. RESULTS: In total 3342 patients were seen. The majority were adults (n = 2162, or 64.7%) and female (n = 1872, or 56%). 1543 (46.2%) assessments were virtual and 1799 (53.8%) assessments were in-person. 67 of 100 random patient surveys sent to those in the virtual assessment group were completed. 89.6% (n = 60) agreed or strongly agreed when asked if they were satisfied with their telemedicine visit. 64.2% (n = 43) felt they received the same level of care compared to in-person assessments and 91% (n = 61) stated they would attend another virtual appointment. 95.4% (n = 62) of patients reported saving time with virtual assessment, the majority (n = 42, 62.7%) estimating between 1–4 h saved. Reported shortcomings included technical difficulties, “feeling rushed”, and missing in-person interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Our quality improvement initiative demonstrated high patient satisfaction and time savings with virtual assessment in a publicly funded health care system. Studies suggest that CIA may be uniquely situated to benefit from permanent integration of virtual care into regular practice for both new and follow-up appointments. We anticipate continued increased utilization of telemedicine, signifying a lasting beneficial change in the delivery of healthcare. BioMed Central 2022-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8860358/ /pubmed/35189969 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13223-022-00657-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Edgerley, Sarah
Zhu, Rongbo
Quidwai, Ariba
Kim, Harold
Jeimy, Samira
Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title_full Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title_fullStr Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title_short Telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of COVID-19: a Canadian perspective
title_sort telemedicine in allergy/immunology in the era of covid-19: a canadian perspective
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8860358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35189969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13223-022-00657-3
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