Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 21, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 10, 2023
Identification and Management of Thyroid Dysfunction using At-Home Sample Collection and Telehealth Services: A retrospective analysis of real-world data
ABSTRACT
Background:
Programs aimed at modernizing thyroid care by pairing at-home sample collection methods with telehealth options may serve an important and emerging role in thyroid care.
Objective:
The primary objective of this analysis was to evaluate telehealth utilization, demographics, and clinical characteristics of a cohort of consumer initiated at-home lab thyroid test users who were also offered the option of follow-up telehealth consultations.
Methods:
This was a retrospective analysis of real-world data from a de-identified consumer database of home-collected, mail-in Thyroid Tests utilized from March to May 2021 (n=8,152). The mean age was 38.6 (range 18-85) years and 86.6% of individuals identified as female.
Results:
Seven percent of test takers fell into a thyroid dysfunction category (0.9% overt-hypothyroidism, 2.9% subclinical hypothyroidism, 0.1% overt-hypothyroidism, and 3.3% subclinical-hyperthyroidism). Twelve percent of the overall sample opted into a telehealth consultation, with 91.8% receiving a non-treatment telehealth consultation and 8.2% receiving a treatment telemedicine consultation. Sixteen percent of individuals with overt or subclinical thyroid dysfunction engaged in telehealth consultations. Of those opting into a treatment consultation, 59.3% reported a history of thyroid issues, 55.6% indicated wanting to discuss their current thyroid medication, and 48% received a prescription medication.
Conclusions:
The combination of at-home sample collection and telehealth is an innovative model for screening for thyroid disorders, monitoring thyroid function, and increasing access to care that can be implemented at a large scale and across a wide range of age groups. Clinical Trial: N/A
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.