Has Telemedicine come to Fruition? Patients’ and Physicians’ Perceptions Regarding Telemedicine: Presenter(s): Noelle Junod Perron, Geneva University Hospitals and Geneva Faculty of Medicine, Switzerland

INTRODUCTION: The SARS-Cov2 pandemic boosted the use of telemedicine. The aim of our study was to evaluate patient and physician perceptions regarding the use of the different modalities of telemedicine for various health problems. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in Geneva Switzerland in 2021. Patients in waiting rooms of both medical centres and emergency services were invited to answer an online questionnaire, while physicians working in private and public settings were asked to answer a similar questionnaire by email. The questionnaire focused on digital literacy, acceptability, preferences, as well as barriers and facilitators concerning of telemedicine. FINDINGS: 570 patients and 543 physicians participated. After face-to-face consultations, most patients preferred the telephone to other modalities for health issues such as simple medical advice (65%), discussion of clinical parameters (61%), acute or chronic problems (55% and 60%), and psychological support (57%).They valued emails for communication of blood tests (56%) and renewal of medication (49%). Half of patients considered video to be acceptable for psychological support. A large majority of physicians considered the phone to be an acceptable modality for all the issues mentioned above (85% to 94%). Emails and videos were considered to be acceptable for follow-up of patients with chronic diseases (53% and 54%) and provision of simple advice (51% and 48%). 65% of physicians would use video for psychological support. Patients’ mains reasons for using telemedicine were lack of traveling (72%) and saving time (56%). Disadvantages were lack of physical examination (60%), technical problems (43%), and unsuitability (43%). Physicians feared the potential negative impact of telemedicine on the therapeutic relationship and insisted on the need for a facilitated access. CONCLUSION: The use of telemedicine has increased since the pandemic but both doctors and patients continue to prefer face-to-face consultations. Telephone remains more acceptable than video in most medical situations.