Piloting of video consultations. Framework.

By project TITTAN

Published on 14 July 2022

Spain

País Vasco

About this good practice

The few randomized trials that have been conducted focus on the use of video consultations in hospital outpatient clinics for patients with chronic conditions. They generally report that video consultations led to high satisfaction among patients and clinicians; no difference was seen in disease progression or service use; A non-randomized trial comparing video with telephone and face-to-face consultations in UK primary care reported no difference in terms of consultation length, content, and quality compared with telephone consultations. However, both forms of remote consultations were seen as less “information rich” than face-to-face consultations, and technical problems were common. In addition, we could not find meaningful evidence to inform clinicians on when to use phone or video consultation.

Resources needed

A corporative contract with Zoom platform

Evidence of success

The good experience taken by 21 professionals with more than 150 videocalls give us the track to begin with the deployment of this tool.

Potential for learning or transfer

With the development of eHealth, many IT tools have been developed but it impact were not properly assessed. Here, we present that after the small studied conducted, the learnings and the next steps are:
 It is a useful tool but in specific and defined processes, defining beforehand and clearly with the patient in which moments of the follow-up process it can, should and will be used.
 It brings the value of verbal communication and image to the telephone consultation, which can lead to verify that both the professional and the patient-family are satisfied with what is proposed.
 Complemented with face-to-face consultations, it will be a good alternative to telephone consultations.
 It is easy to use, but it needs to be improved from the point of view of the management of a primary care agenda.
 It is not yet validated for use in acute pathology, unless progress is made in triage processes for health emergency situations.
 This project will continue during 2022 and 2023.