Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jul 13, 2021
Date Accepted: Nov 27, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Dec 22, 2021
A fertility workup with video consultation: a pilot study with patient experiences in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor part of elective healthcare in the Netherlands, such as reproductive medicine, was paused. When healthcare was resumed, video consultations were used as a new solution to continue consultations within the new governmental rules of social distancing. Prior to this COVID-19 situation, video consulting was not used intensively in the Netherlands, therefore physicians and patients were not familiar with this way of consultation.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to measure the level of patient-centeredness and shared decision making in infertile couples, who undergo a fertility workup per video consultation.
Methods:
This is a questionnaire study with an additional qualitative part for more in depth understanding. Infertile couples, i.e. men and women after one year of unprotected intercourse, were referred to a fertility centre and underwent a fertility workup per video consult. The fertility workup consisted of two separate video consultations, with diagnostic tests according to protocol. After the last video consultation couples received a digital questionnaire, which consisted of a modified version of the PCQ-Infertility and the CollaboRATE questionnaire. Fifty-three eligible infertile couples were approached of which twenty-two participated. Four women were approached for a semi-structured interview.
Results:
The median score on the modified PCQ-Infertility was 2.64, on a scale of 0 to 3. The highest rating was on the subscale ‘Communication and Information’ and the lowest rating was for the subscale ‘Organization of care’. The median score on the CollaboRATE questionnaire was 8 on a scale of 1 to 9, on all three sub-questions. Patients mentioned privacy, less travel time and easy use of the program as possible benefits of the video consultation. However, patients preferred the first consultation with their physician to face-to-face as video consultation was experienced less personal.
Conclusions:
The high level of patient-centeredness and shared decision making, show that video consultation is a promising way of providing care remotely, although attention has te be payed to mitigate the more impersonal setting than face-to-face consultation.
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