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Research Article
Implementing Telemedicine for the Management of Benign Urologic Conditions: A Single Centre Experience in Italy
Enrico Checcucci
Division of Urology, Dept. of Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Turin, San Luigi Hospital, Orbassano (Turin), Italy
Corresponding Author
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Declarations:
Declarations
- This study involved human subjects.
- The author confirmed that all appropriate ethical guidelines for the use of human subjects have been followed, any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee review has been obtained, and information about the IRB/ethics committee is included in the manuscript.
- The author has confirmed that all necessary patient/participant consent or assent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. If the IRB/ethics committee waived the requirement for patient/participant consent or assent, an explanation for the waiver is included in the text.
- The author has confirmed that a statement listing potential conflicts of interest or lack thereof is included in the text.
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.
Keywords
telemedicine, Covid-19, BPH, urology, telehealth, phone-counselling
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This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
- Supplementarymaterial1.docx
Supplementary materials1. Telephone questionnaire
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This is a preprint. It has not completed peer review.
Research Article
Implementing Telemedicine for the Management of Benign Urologic Conditions: A Single Centre Experience in Italy
Enrico Checcucci
Division of Urology, Dept. of Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Turin, San Luigi Hospital, Orbassano (Turin), Italy
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 29 Sep, 2020
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
Subject Areas
Urology & Nephrology
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Declarations:
Declarations
- This study involved human subjects.
- The author confirmed that all appropriate ethical guidelines for the use of human subjects have been followed, any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee review has been obtained, and information about the IRB/ethics committee is included in the manuscript.
- The author has confirmed that all necessary patient/participant consent or assent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. If the IRB/ethics committee waived the requirement for patient/participant consent or assent, an explanation for the waiver is included in the text.
- The author has confirmed that a statement listing potential conflicts of interest or lack thereof is included in the text.
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