A recent survey shows that confinement in France due to the current pandemic is associated with increased use of telemedicine. Indeed, the use of teleconsultation has been multiplied by five with health professionals. However, some technical issues persisted.
The first wave of Covid-19 boosted the use of telemedicine in France. In any case, this is the conclusion of a survey recently published by Odoxa, involving a total of 2,010 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over. Among them, we find 254 doctors and 248 nurses . The participants spoke of their enthusiasm for telemedicine and the possible problems encountered during the period of confinement.
According to the results, the use of teleconsultation was multiplied by more than three with patients between January and June 2020. Over the same period, the use of doctors has been multiplied by five. In addition, all of the health personnel interviewed had tried this practice at least once. It was for them to monitor their patients remotely , but also to complement their professional activity. No less than 75% of them expressed their satisfaction.
The survey also evokes enthusiasm boosted by ease of access to different platforms of teleconsultation. Manufacturers of software publishers have massively contacted healthcare professionals in order to offer them attractive solutions, sometimes free of charge. Thus, one out of two doctors had obtained means of video transmission for the confinement period in France.
Nevertheless, this craze comes with some problems. Indeed, health professionals have mentioned connection problems. They also highlighted the lack of interoperability of software tools (the ability of a system to work with other existing products). This, they say, hindered their work. In addition, some have reflected on the risks of dehumanizing the doctor/patient relationship or of data hacking . Remember that recently in Germany, a ransomware attack paralyzed the computer system of a hospital and caused the death of a patient.
The previous Odoxa survey on the subject mentioned the fact that only6% of French people had tried teleconsultation in 2019 . Nevertheless, no less than 65% of the French people questioned had declared that they wanted to accept using it in the event of a request from the doctor. While the Covid-19 pandemic is more present than ever, teleconsultation seems to have a bright future ahead of it. Nevertheless, professionals would like the problems mentioned to be resolved in order to gain efficiency and time.
