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A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students

Cost and transportation are two commonly cited barriers to accessing health care in both human and veterinary medicine within underserved communities. While human medicine has utilized telehealth as a means of breaking down this barrier, limited research exists to describe its use in veterinary medi...

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Autores principales: Lundahl, Lauren, Powell, Lauren, Reinhard, Chelsea L., Healey, Eleni, Watson, Brittany
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9083193/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35548044
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.871928
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author Lundahl, Lauren
Powell, Lauren
Reinhard, Chelsea L.
Healey, Eleni
Watson, Brittany
author_facet Lundahl, Lauren
Powell, Lauren
Reinhard, Chelsea L.
Healey, Eleni
Watson, Brittany
author_sort Lundahl, Lauren
collection PubMed
description Cost and transportation are two commonly cited barriers to accessing health care in both human and veterinary medicine within underserved communities. While human medicine has utilized telehealth as a means of breaking down this barrier, limited research exists to describe its use in veterinary medicine. The Pets for Life (PFL) program has partnered with the Penn Vet Shelter Medicine Program to provide veterinary appointments to clients, at no cost to the client, in underserved zip codes through virtual telehealth visits. These visits incorporated veterinary students as part of their clinical rotations through a service learning based model. Between January and August 2021, 31 PFL clients and nine veterinary students completed surveys to describe the role of telehealth in addressing barriers to accessing veterinary care, their perceptions of telehealth appointments, the human-animal bond, and changes in veterinary student empathy. PFL clients completed the survey immediately following their telehealth appointment, and veterinary students completed surveys prior to and following their participation in the PFL appointments during the rotation. Nearly 25% of clients reported that they would not have been able to secure transportation and 58% reported they would not have been able to afford an appointment at an in-person veterinary clinic. The population of clients who responded that cost was a significant barrier to accessing care did not entirely overlap with those who responded that transportation was a significant barrier to accessing care, indicating support for the use of telehealth in providing an alternative modality to address transportation challenges as a barrier to accessing veterinary care. Additional data suggests that both client and student experience was overwhelmingly positive, providing support for further service learning initiatives in veterinary student education. Further research is warranted to continue to assess the emerging role of telehealth in improving veterinary care for underserved communities.
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spelling pubmed-90831932022-05-10 A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students Lundahl, Lauren Powell, Lauren Reinhard, Chelsea L. Healey, Eleni Watson, Brittany Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Cost and transportation are two commonly cited barriers to accessing health care in both human and veterinary medicine within underserved communities. While human medicine has utilized telehealth as a means of breaking down this barrier, limited research exists to describe its use in veterinary medicine. The Pets for Life (PFL) program has partnered with the Penn Vet Shelter Medicine Program to provide veterinary appointments to clients, at no cost to the client, in underserved zip codes through virtual telehealth visits. These visits incorporated veterinary students as part of their clinical rotations through a service learning based model. Between January and August 2021, 31 PFL clients and nine veterinary students completed surveys to describe the role of telehealth in addressing barriers to accessing veterinary care, their perceptions of telehealth appointments, the human-animal bond, and changes in veterinary student empathy. PFL clients completed the survey immediately following their telehealth appointment, and veterinary students completed surveys prior to and following their participation in the PFL appointments during the rotation. Nearly 25% of clients reported that they would not have been able to secure transportation and 58% reported they would not have been able to afford an appointment at an in-person veterinary clinic. The population of clients who responded that cost was a significant barrier to accessing care did not entirely overlap with those who responded that transportation was a significant barrier to accessing care, indicating support for the use of telehealth in providing an alternative modality to address transportation challenges as a barrier to accessing veterinary care. Additional data suggests that both client and student experience was overwhelmingly positive, providing support for further service learning initiatives in veterinary student education. Further research is warranted to continue to assess the emerging role of telehealth in improving veterinary care for underserved communities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-04-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9083193/ /pubmed/35548044 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.871928 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lundahl, Powell, Reinhard, Healey and Watson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Lundahl, Lauren
Powell, Lauren
Reinhard, Chelsea L.
Healey, Eleni
Watson, Brittany
A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title_full A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title_fullStr A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title_full_unstemmed A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title_short A Pilot Study Examining the Experience of Veterinary Telehealth in an Underserved Population Through a University Program Integrating Veterinary Students
title_sort pilot study examining the experience of veterinary telehealth in an underserved population through a university program integrating veterinary students
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9083193/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35548044
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.871928
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