Telemedicine in the monitoring of covid-19 patients: general practitioners’ usage, facilitators and barriers in the local health authority roma 1
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1
Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome; 2. Local Health Authority Roma 1. Italy
2
Department of Hygiene, University Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
3
Local Health Authority Roma 1.
4
Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome
Publication date: 2023-04-26
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A593
ABSTRACT
Background and Objective:
Telemedicine is a powerful tool for managing of COVID-19 patients.
Our study aims to evaluate the use, barriers and facilitators of the “Lazio ADVICE” telemedicine platform according to General Practitioners (GPs) and Family Paediatricians (FPs) of the LHA Roma 1 to contrast the pandemic. This could be useful for the wider implementation of telemedicine in primary healthcare.
Methods:
We performed an interview-based survey composed of questions investigating the demographic information of GPs/FPs, the knowledge of the platform, frequency of utilization, usefulness, strengths and weaknesses and the hypothesis of future implementation proposed.
Results:
We interviewed 214 physicians (21.75% of the total population): 89 (41.59%) users and 125 (58.41%) non-user. Older age and working in District 1, 14 and 15 (vs. District 13) significantly reduced the probability of using the platform by the physician.
Among the users, 19 (21.35%) used the platform every day or even several times a day, 40 (44.34%) several times a week but less than one access per day, 30 (33.71%) several times a month. Most of them (92.26%) consider the platform useful. Suggested improvements: integration between physician’s applications (86.26%), presence of data regarding COVID-19 diagnosis and contact tracing (69.6%), facilitating access and usability (52.81%). Difficulties: poor integration among software and work routine (76.4%), deficiencies regarding contact tracing (67.41%), access and usability issues (53.93%).
Among the non-users, 14 (11.2%) didn’t know the platform existence, 60 (48%) never tried and 51 (40.8%) tried to use it. Reported reasons for the interruption of use were: not very user-friendly (45.1%), perceived useless (37.26%), non-optimal functioning (23.53%) and lack of time (19.61%).
Conclusion:
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the implementation of telemedicine services. Telemedicine for monitoring patients has potential but certainly, to be competitive it must offer something different or additional than telephone consultation.