Title: Telehealth consultations during COVID times - barriers and facilitators: a multi-state exploratory study from India

Authors: Sree T. Sucharitha; Chakrapani Chatla; Vikhram Ramasubramanian; R. Vaishika; S.M. Balaji; R. Pradeep; Aravind Manoharan

Addresses: Department of Community Medicine, Tagore Medical College, Hospital, Chennai, India ' Novita HealthNTech Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India ' Ahana Hospitals, MS Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, KK Nagar, Madurai, India ' Department of Community Medicine, Tagore Medical College Hospital, Chennai, India ' Department of Community Medicine, Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur, India ' Department of Psychiatry, Madha Medical College, Chennai, India ' Department of Community Medicine, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chennai, India

Abstract: Globally, COVID-19 has drastically derailed the clinical care for outpatient services. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) used various specially designed telehealth applications (THA) to cater to the needs of patients. We attempted to explore the barriers and facilitators in utilising THAs as part of a multi-state and multi-disciplinary exploratory sequential mixed methods study. Our study comprised of initial survey of HCPs using quantitative Google Forms Survey tool followed by personal (physical and phone-based) interviews of 30 selected/consented HCPs. Of the 98 HCPs responded to the survey, ~60% of had 1-2 telehealth consultations/day during the pandemic. Approximately 61% of the consultations were limited to < 60 minutes interactions. Less than half were obtaining consent and only one third were maintaining digital log record. Most of the younger HCPs especially women have continued their services through THAs and felt that THAs will continue in the future. Besides the limitations of generalisability, the results suggest enormous scope for THAs in future towards simplifying the processes for effective healthcare service delivery at lesser cost and time.

Keywords: COVID-19; telehealth applications; THA; healthcare service delivery; digital platforms; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2024.138285

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2024 Vol.16 No.3, pp.237 - 251

Received: 05 Nov 2021
Accepted: 08 Feb 2022
Published online: 01 May 2024 *

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