Technical Factors Can Impact on Remote Consultations in Rheumatology: Results from a Service Evaluation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open accessAbstract
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there have been changes in clinical practice to limit transmission, such as switching from face-to-face to remote consultations. We aimed to study the influence of technical factors on remote consultations in our experience during the pandemic. 12 clinicians completed data collection forms after consultations, recording the technology used (video vs phone); technical problems encountered; discharge or subsequent appointment status; and technical aspects of the consultation process using 0–10 numerical rating scales (NRS) (Time Adequate; Relevant History; Physical Exam; Management Plan; and Communication Quality). Data were collated on an MS Access 2016 database and transferred to SPSS version 25 for statistics. Of 285 forms valid for analysis, 48 (16.8%) had video consultations. Of 259 forms with technical problems data recorded, 48 (18.5%) had a technical problem. Video patients were significantly younger (mean 49.3 vs 61.3 years, p < 0.001), had higher scores on Physical Exam scale (mean 4.0 vs 2.6, p < 0.001), but had no significant difference on Management Plan scale (7.3 vs 7.2). Those with technical problems were more common among video consultations (33.3% vs 15.4%, p = 0.005), had lower scores on Time Adequate scale (7.7 vs 8.7, p < 0.001) and Communication Quality scale (7.1 vs 8.4, p < 0.001), but had no significant difference on Management Plan scale (7.3 vs 7.2). The strongest correlation of Management Plan scale was with Communication Quality scale (Rho = 0.64). Of the NRS, a 1-point reduction in scores on Management Plan scale was the strongest predictor of subsequent face-to-face appointment (Odds Ratio 1.88, 95% CI 1.58–2.24), and this remained an independent predictor in multivariate analysis (adjusted OR 1.90, 1.57–2.31). Having a technical problem was inversely associated with the outcome of a subsequent face-to-face appointment (OR 0.17, 0.04–0.74), and this remained significant after adjustment for Management Plan in multivariate analysis (adjusted OR 0.09, 0.12–0.54). Video patients were younger suggesting a preference for video amongst younger patients. Although technical problems were more common with video, having a video consultation or a technical problem had no significant impact on management plan. Scoring lower on the Management Plan scale was the strongest predictor of, and independently associated with, requesting a subsequent face-to-face appointment. The inverse relationship of technical problems with subsequent face-to-face appointment request will need validation in further studies.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The different quality and functionality of patients' devices, such as camera resolutions, can impact the information quality gathered in remote consultation.
“The different quality and functionality of patients’ devices, such as camera resolutions, can impact the information quality gathered in remote consultation [244].”
From Toward Safer Diagnoses: A SEIPS-Based Narrative Review of Diagnostic Errors (2026) · cites this paper as [244]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 18 · Cited by 10
Research works printed but not linked: 16
- [1]Kipps S Paul A Vasireddy S Incidence of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic disease: is prior health education more important than shielding advice during the pandemic? Clin Rheumatol 2021 40 4 1575 1579 10.1007/s10067-020-05494-6 33174109 PMC7655460 · DOI
- [2]Jiménez E Fontán-Vela M Valencia J Fernandez-Jimenez I Álvaro-Alonso EA Izquierdo-García E Characteristics, complications and outcomes among 1549 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a secondary hospital in Madrid, Spain: a retrospective case series study BMJ Open 2020 10 11 e042398 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042398 33172949 PMC7656887 · DOI
- [3]Strangfeld A Schäfer M Gianfrancesco MA Lawson-Tovey S Liew JW Ljung L Factors associated with COVID-19-related death in people with rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician-reported registry Ann Rheum Dis 2021 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219498 33504483 PMC7843211 · DOI · Paper page
- [5]National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2020) COVID-19 rapid guideline: rheumatological autoimmune, inflammatory and metabolic bone disorders. NICE guideline [NG167] Published: 03 April 2020; Last updated: 31 March 2021. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG167. Accessed 04 Feb 2022 33439591
- [6]Price E MacPhie E Kay L Lanyon P Griffiths B Holroyd C Identifying rheumatic disease patients at high risk and requiring shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic Clin Med (Lond) 2020 20 3 256 61 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0149 PMC7354033 32371418 · DOI
- [7]McDougall JA Ferucci ED Glover J Fraenkel L Telerheumatology: a systematic review Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2017 69 10 1546 1557 10.1002/acr.23153 27863164 PMC5436947 · DOI · Paper page
- [8]McKendrick JG Note on the microphone and telephone in auscultation Br Med J 1878 1 911 856 7 10.1136/bmj.1.911.856 20748888 PMC2221282 · DOI
- [9]Stroganoff W Standard of results in the treatment of eclampsia. An experiment in the treatment of eclampsia by telephone consultation Proc R Soc Med 1928 21 10 1734 42 19986609 PMC2101248
- [10]Hennell S Spark E Wood B George E An evaluation of nurse-led rheumatology telephone clinics Musculoskelet Care 2005 3 4 233 240 10.1002/msc.13 17042011 · DOI
- [11]Mani-Babu S Rita Abdulkader R Implementing nurse telephone follow-up clinics for monitoring parenteral osteoporosis treatment—a service evaluation Clin Med 2019 19 3 s59 10.7861/clinmedicine.19-3s-s59 · DOI
- [12]Graham LE McGimpsey S Wright S McClean G Carser J Stevenson M Could a low-cost audio-visual link be useful in rheumatology? J Telemed Telecare 2000 6 Suppl 1 S35 S37 10.1258/1357633001934078 10793966 · DOI
- [14]Nune A Iyengar KP Ahmed A Bilgrami S Sapkota HR Impact of COVID-19 on rheumatology practice in the UK-a pan-regional rheumatology survey Clin Rheumatol 2021 40 6 2499 2504 10.1007/s10067-021-05601-1 33495972 PMC7832421 · DOI
- [16]Howren A Aviña-Zubieta JA Rebić N Dau H Gastonguay L Shojania K Davidson E De Vera MA Virtual rheumatology appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic: an international survey of perspectives of patients with rheumatic diseases Clin Rheumatol 2020 39 11 3191 3193 10.1007/s10067-020-05338-3 32803570 PMC7429087 · DOI
- [17]Leggett P Graham L Steele K Gilliland A Stevenson M O'Reilly D Wootton R Taggart A Telerheumatology–diagnostic accuracy and acceptability to patient, specialist, and general practitioner Br J Gen Pract 2001 51 470 746 8 11593837 PMC1314104
- [18]Bos WH van Tubergen A Vonkeman HE Telemedicine for patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic; a positive experience in the Netherlands Rheumatol Int 2021 41 3 565 573 10.1007/s00296-020-04771-6 33449162 PMC7809638 · DOI
- [19]Chan A Suarez A Kitchen J Bradlow A Teleclinics in rheumatology introduced during the first lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 Future Healthc J 2021 8 1 e27 e31 10.7861/fhj.2020-0093 33791471 PMC8004321 · DOI
- Authors
- Vasireddy, S., Wig, S., & Hannides, M.
- Affiliations
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Vasireddy, Sreekanth
- Venue
- Rheumatology International
- Published
- 2022-04-11
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 999-1007
- ISSN
- 0172-8172 (ISSN-L)
- 1437-160X
- PMC
- PMC8995407
- OpenAlex
- W4223492302
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 1.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Rheumatology International (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › COVID-19 and healthcare impacts
- Keywords
- teleconsultation, telemedicine, video consultation, telephone consultation, technical challenges, COVID-19 pandemic, rheumatology, management plan, communication quality, physical examination, patient satisfaction, service evaluation, digital divide
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Communication, Humans, Rheumatology, Remote Consultation, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
