Implementing Telemedicine for the Management of Benign Urologic Conditions: A Single Centre Experience in Italy
Purpose: to assess the use of telemedicine with phone-call visits as practical tool to follow-up with patients affected by urological benign diseases, whose clinic visits had been cancelled during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: patients were contacted via phone-call and a specific questionnaire was administered to evaluate the health status of these patients, and to identify those who needed an “in-person” ambulatory visit due to the worsening of their condition. Secondarily, the patients’ perception of a potential shift towards a "telehealth" approach to the management of their condition and to indirectly evaluate their desire to return to “in-person” clinic visits.
Results: 607 were contacted by phone-call. 87.5% (531/607) of the cases showed stability of the symptoms so no clinic in-person or emergency visits were needed. 81.5% (495/607) of patients were more concerned about the risk of contagion than their urological condition.
The median score for phone visit comprehensibility and ease of communication of exams was 5/5; whilst patients’ perception of phone visits’ usefulness was scored 4/5. 53% (322/607) of the interviewees didn’t own the basic supports required to be able to perform a real telemedicine consult according to the required standards.
Conclusion: Telemedicine approach limits the number of unnecessary accesses to medical facilities and represent an important tool for the limitation of the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. However, infrastructures, health workers and patients should reach out to a computerization process in order to allow a wider diffusion of more advanced forms of telemedicine, such as televisit.
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Supplementary materials1. Telephone questionnaire
Posted 29 Sep, 2020
Implementing Telemedicine for the Management of Benign Urologic Conditions: A Single Centre Experience in Italy
Posted 29 Sep, 2020
Purpose: to assess the use of telemedicine with phone-call visits as practical tool to follow-up with patients affected by urological benign diseases, whose clinic visits had been cancelled during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: patients were contacted via phone-call and a specific questionnaire was administered to evaluate the health status of these patients, and to identify those who needed an “in-person” ambulatory visit due to the worsening of their condition. Secondarily, the patients’ perception of a potential shift towards a "telehealth" approach to the management of their condition and to indirectly evaluate their desire to return to “in-person” clinic visits.
Results: 607 were contacted by phone-call. 87.5% (531/607) of the cases showed stability of the symptoms so no clinic in-person or emergency visits were needed. 81.5% (495/607) of patients were more concerned about the risk of contagion than their urological condition.
The median score for phone visit comprehensibility and ease of communication of exams was 5/5; whilst patients’ perception of phone visits’ usefulness was scored 4/5. 53% (322/607) of the interviewees didn’t own the basic supports required to be able to perform a real telemedicine consult according to the required standards.
Conclusion: Telemedicine approach limits the number of unnecessary accesses to medical facilities and represent an important tool for the limitation of the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. However, infrastructures, health workers and patients should reach out to a computerization process in order to allow a wider diffusion of more advanced forms of telemedicine, such as televisit.
Figure 1
Figure 2