The Self-Efficacy of Physicians to Communicate With Patients via Telemedicine in Lieu of Face-to-Face Visits in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Observational Study

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has perpetuated the switch to increased use of telemedicine for initial consultations for physicians out of the necessity of reducing face-to-face contact. It has not been thoroughly studied whether physicians are as self-efficacious in their ability to communicate virtually versus in person considering the natural difficulty of obtaining some objective data points such as those coming from physical examination techniques via telemedicine. Methods: The Self Efficacy-12 (SE-12) questionnaire, a physician validated objective measure, was used to assess 101 physicians (96% response rate) from 29 specialties for their self-efficacy when communicating with patients when consulting virtually versus in person. Results: There was a significant 32.43% decrease (p=<0.01) in physician self-efficacy when a patient was evaluated via telemedicine for the first time. Conclusion: The significant decrease in self-efficacy provides initial evidence that initial consultations should be done in person to maximize physician self-efficacy when communicating with patients.