Implementação de telemedicina em uroginecologia: estudo de viabilidade

Abstract

Introduction and Hypothesis: Telemedicine was recommended for the management of urogynecological conditions during the coronavirus disease (COVID 19) pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of telemedicine for urogynecology at a Brazilian public hospital. Methods: A descriptive observational study was performed at an urogynecology outpatient clinic. The feasibility of telemedicine was determined by assessing appointment resolvability, technical aspects of the appointment, participant satisfaction, and desire to continue with telemedicine. The participants had cancelled in-person appointments because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected sociodemographic characteristics data, and clinical and technical aspects of the appointments. The participants responded to satisfaction questionnaires 7 -15 days post-procedure. The categorical variables were evaluated based on absolute and relative frequencies. The continuous variables were described as the mean and standard deviation. A chi- square test was performed to determine the association between variables. Results: In total, 225 patients had appointments cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, of which 171 were eligible for the study. Telemedicine appointments were agreed upon by 48% of the participants and 85.5% responded to the satisfaction survey. We found that 73.2% of the appointments were resolvable, and 59.1% met the technical criteria. Of the participants who answered the satisfaction survey, 93% were satisfied, but only 57.7% would use telemedicine services again. Only the patient overall satisfaction was associates with the desire to continue telemedicine (p=0.024). Conclusion: Telemedicine in urogynecology is feasible and can be implemented in the studied population. However, actions are essential to increase access to technical resources and improve acceptance towards telemedicine.