Users’ perspectives about challenges of using telemedicine for patient with diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: Telemedicine services have been recognized as a safe and affordable method for providing continuous healthcare services, especially to patients with chronic diseases. Despite all advantages, the use of this technology has faced several challenges particularly during COVID-19. The aim of this study was to investigate physicians’ and patients’ with diabetes perspectives about challenges of using telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This survey study was conducted in 2023. The participants were endocrinologists, internal medicine specialists, general practitioners (GPs), and patients with diabetes in five teaching hospitals located in one of the underprivileged areas in Iran. Data were collected using a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Kruskal–Wallis test. Results: In this study, 95 questionnaires were completed by 60 patients with diabetes (30%), 21 GPs (70%), 10 internal medicine specialists (66.6%), and 4 endocrinologists (80%). The results showed that technical (4.42 ± 0.57), clinical (4.25 ± 0.52), organizational (4.23 ± 0.56), and individual (4.02 ± 0.42) challenges were the most important challenges, respectively. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the perspectives of the specialists, GPs, and patients with diabetes in terms of individual, clinical, technical, and organizational challenges. Conclusions: Since the use of telemedicine for patients with diabetes faced several challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to consider practical solutions to overcome these challenges in order to improve quality of services and increase the use of this technology, particularly in underprivileged areas. Moreover, the effectiveness of these services in different contexts, and for people with different economic conditions should be investigated in the future.