Advancing Education, Research, and Quality of Care for the Head and Neck oncology patient.
Introduction: A shift towards telemedicine consultations was noted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the epidemiological situation is now back to normal, remote consultations are still ungoing, as it is the case in our department for some thyroid and parathyroid pathologies. Biochemical analyses and imaging studies are frequently sufficient to objectively evaluate a patient with a thyroid or parathyroid disease, making a remote consultation modality feasible. Telemedicine has the potential to increase accessibility to healthcare, especially for people living in distant areas, as well as being cost-effective for both the patient and the healthcare system. Studies in otolaryngology have shown good patient satisfaction for telemedicine in post-operative follow-up for head and neck surgery. However, thyroid and parathyroid pathologies are underrepresented in studies about the patient’s experience with telemedicine. In the light of the paucity of the literature on the subject, our goal is to assess both the patient and the clinician satisfaction with telephone appointments for thyroid and parathyroid pathologies and to determine if some factors are favorable or unfavorable for such appointment.
Methods: This is a monocentric prospective cohort study enrolling patients with phone appointments for a thyroid or parathyroid pathology in 2024. After the phone appointment, both the doctor and the patient completed a questionnaire. Most of the questions in the doctor’s survey are from the Physician Satisfaction Questionnaire. The patient’s survey is an in-home questionnaire based on the Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire, with the inclusion of questions from the Patient Experience Questionnaire of our institution. The survey was validated by a psychologist who specialized in patient experience in healthcare. The questionnaire evaluates empathy, professionalism, communication, the telephonic modality and general satisfaction about the appointment.
Results: This study is still ongoing for a few weeks. A hundred patients will be surveyed. Preliminary results show that a large majority of patients are satisfied with the telephone consultation for thyroid or parathyroid pathologies. Early results from the physician questionnaire show great satisfaction in the modality; surgeons are able to offer high-quality care with a very little rate of second in person follow-up. Analysis is ongoing about factors that could predict a favorable experience.
Conclusion: This study preliminary results show that telemedicine is a feasible modality for thyroid and parathyroid pathologies. Both patients and doctors experience a positive phone appointment. Final analysis is still pending, but if those results are confirmed, telemedicine could be applied at a larger scale of patients, especially those living in remote areas, with mobility limitations or with financial or work constraints. Therefore, phone consultations could improve access to healthcare.