Survey on the situation of telepharmacy as applied to the outpatient care in hospital pharmacy departments in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic

Adaptations in the role of pharmacists under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Community pharmacists actively engage in managing the health of local residents, but the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid adaptations in practice activities.

OBJECTIVES

We sought to identify the specific adaptations in practice and the expanded roles of community pharmacists in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review of published studies reporting the tasks of pharmacists in community pharmacies or who were involved in pharmacy practices addressing the pandemic. Two investigators independently searched PubMed (December 2019-January 2022) for eligible articles. We conducted a meta-analysis to measure the frequencies of practical activities by pharmacists in response to COVID-19.

RESULTS

We identified 30 eligible studies. Meta-analysis of these studies found that the most commonly reported adaptation in pharmacist practice activities was modifying hygiene behaviors, including regular cleaning and disinfection (81.89%), followed by maintaining social distance from staff and clients (76.37%). Educating clients on COVID-19 was reported by 22 studies (72.54%). Telemedicine and home delivery services were provided to clients by 49.03 and 41.98% of pharmacists, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The roles of community pharmacists in public health activities have adapted and expanded in response to COVID-19, notably by incorporating public health education activities.

Predicting Risk of Mortality in COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients using Hybrid Machine Learning Algorithms

BACKGROUND

Since hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are considered at high risk of death, the patients with the sever clinical condition should be identified. Despite the potential of machine learning (ML) techniques to predict the mortality of COVID-19 patients, high-dimensional data is considered a challenge, which can be addressed by metaheuristic and nature-inspired algorithms, such as genetic algorithm (GA).

OBJECTIVE

This paper aimed to compare the efficiency of the GA with several ML techniques to predict COVID-19 in-hospital mortality.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In this retrospective study, 1353 COVID-19 in-hospital patients were examined from February 9 to December 20, 2020. The GA technique was applied to select the important features, then using selected features several ML algorithms such as K-nearest-neighbor (K-NN), Decision Tree (DT), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) were trained to design predictive models. Finally, some evaluation metrics were used for the comparison of developed models.

RESULTS

A total of 10 features out of 56 were selected, including length of stay (LOS), age, cough, respiratory intubation, dyspnea, cardiovascular diseases, leukocytosis, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), C-reactive protein, and pleural effusion by 10-independent execution of GA. The GA-SVM had the best performance with the accuracy and specificity of 9.5147e+01 and 9.5112e+01, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The hybrid ML models, especially the GA-SVM, can improve the treatment of COVID-19 patients, predict severe disease and mortality, and optimize the utilization of health resources based on the improvement of input features and the adaption of the structure of the models.

Telepharmacy service experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The COVID-19 pandemic exerted a profound impact on health systems worldwide. Moreover, significant concerns were raised in terms of middle- and long-term consequences of postponing care in non-COVID patients. The primary aim of the study was to describe the remote pharmaceutical care service (telepharmacy) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Srpska (RS), Bosnia and Herzegovina. The secondary aim was to identify service users' needs and concerns and to describe community pharmacists' interventions. Ten community pharmacists were appointed by the Pharmaceutical Society of the RS to deliver telepharmacy services. After obtaining users' verbal permission, pharmacists documented issues discussed with them. The prospective data collection included the period from April 13 to May 21, 2020. Descriptive and statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software (ver. 22). A total of 71 service users' charts were analyzed. Telepharmacy users were on average 61.31 ± 13.27 years of age, with almost equal gender distribution. Patients with chronic or acute/subacute conditions were predominant with a share of 84.5%. Chronic diseases were the main reason for searching pharmacists' consultation (74.6%), 7% had a complaint about worsening of a chronic condition, 9.9% reported only acute/subacute conditions as ambulatory conditions, whereas 15.5% asked information about coronavirus or COVID-19. The vast majority of patients' and users' needs were addressed by a pharmacist during counseling and only 15.5% of the patients required immediate referral to a doctor for refill/prescribing purposes. Remote pharmaceutical care service (telepharmacy) is deemed a convenient model in the RS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and users presented with explicit and specific needs and concerns, both COVID- and non-COVID-related, which should not be neglected. Community pharmacists showed a high level of resilience and ability in addressing patients' needs.

Improving the Pharmacists’ Response to Public Health Emergencies—Documentary Research on Online Resources Provided by National Pharmacists’ Associations

Objectives: Given the expanding role of pharmacists during COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to investigate the approach of professional associations to supporting their practice and to find ways to improve their response to public health emergencies.

Methods: We conducted documentary research on websites of seven national pharmacists’ associations, submitted the findings to a comparative thematic analysis, and made proposals of specific good practices.

Results: Many great resources were provided by pharmacists’ associations in Australia, France, Spain, and the US. The similarities include scientific information on COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, legal issues, and wellbeing management. The main differences were in developing medication management programs, supporting hospital pharmacists, helping families, or advocating for an equitable vaccination. In Finland, Hungary and Romania, the focus was on updating emerging information. Considering the need for better managing public health emergencies at organizational level, we suggested good practices regarding training and communication.

Conclusion: Professional associations should develop preparedness and response plans for public health emergencies. Practical training and effective communication could improve the resilience of pharmacists and patients during pandemics, which could save lives.

Exploring the perception and readiness of Pharmacists towards telepharmacy implementation; a cross sectional analysis

Background

Amid the turbulent nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, telepharmacy has shifted the paradigm of patient care by leveraging digital medicine. Government mandated lockdowns and norms of social distancing have further underscored the need for telepharmacy. Many developed and developing countries implemented such initiatives where pharmacists have provided tele-pharmacy services via telecommunications. However, the implementation and utilization of tele-pharmacy services are quite negligible in resource limited settings due to financial and administrative constraints. This study was aimed to ascertain the perception and readiness of pharmacists working in various sectors of a resource limiting country.

Methodology

A cross sectional study was carried out in all provinces of Pakistan to explore the perceptions of pharmacists towards telepharmacy implementation through a 35-items study instrument. The collected data was analyzed descriptively and scored accordingly. The chi-square test was used for inferential analysis on pharmacist's perception regarding implementation of tele-pharmacy with their demographics.

Results

Of 380 pharmacists, the mean age is 27.67 ± 3.67 years with a preponderance of male pharmacists (n = 238, 62.6%). The pharmacists (n = 321, 84.5%) perceived that telepharmacy implementation improves patient's quality of life and decreases patients' visits (n = 291, 76.6%). Overall, pharmacists (n = 227, 59.7%) had negative perception towards benefits of telepharmacy implementation, but pharmacists had positive perception towards eligibility (n = 258, 67.9%), regulatory issues (n = 271, 71.3%) and telepharmacy during pandemic and beyond (n = 312, 82.1%). In chi-square testing gender (p = 0.03) and age (p = 0.03) had a significant association with perception regarding regulatory issues. Among perception regarding telepharmacy during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond age had a significant association (p = 0.03). Among perception regarding eligibility job location of pharmacists had significant association (p = 0.04).

Conclusion

The majority of pharmacists had a positive perception regarding the eligibility of patients and regulatory issues/legal framework regarding the implementation of tele-pharmacy, as well as its use during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The implementation of tele-pharmacy can play a major role in providing timely and better patient care to remote patient areas and may help in the prevention and treatment of different infectious diseases.

The modern Russian pharmaceutical market: consumer attitudes towards distance retailing of medicines

Background

In Russia, remote retail trade of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines was legalised. According to statistics as of April 2020, consumer demand in the categories of “online pharmacies” increased by 803%.

Methods

The study was conducted in two stages by cross-sectional method using a structured questionnaire in the central region of Russia: 1st stage - July-August 2020; 2nd stage - February-March 2021. The results of the study were obtained using qualitative (method of discussions in focus groups) and quantitative methods (survey) of sociological research, logical and statistical analysis. The representativeness of the data was ensured by a sufficient sample size including 1194 consumers (with confidence probability = 0.95 and confidence interval ≤ 0.05).

Results

The number of respondents fully supporting the legalisation of online trade in medicines increased. Consumer attitudes towards online commerce depend on the age group of the respondents. 1.5 times more respondents over 46 years (12.1%) are strongly against distance selling of medicines compared to survey participants aged 18 to 25 years (7.8%). Six months after the first survey, no respondent strongly opposed the sale of prescription medicines through the internet, whereas in the first survey half of consumers held this view. The percentage of respondents who considered pharmaceutical counselling when purchasing medicines online as extremely important decreased by a factor of 4 over time (10.9%) M (08.2020) = 3.66 (0.992); M (03. 2021) = 3.17 (0.981) t = 7.66 (p < 0.05). Consumers consider accessibility for people with disabilities (80.3%) to be the most significant advantage of distance selling medicines.

Conclusion

Consumer demand for the purchase of medicines online will grow as this type of sale has undeniable advantages. However, some risks remain when buying medicines online.

Survey of the patients' perspectives and preferences in adopting telepharmacy versus in-person visits to the pharmacy: a feasibility study during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the health authorities recommended the implementation of strict social distancing and complete lockdown regulations to reduce disease spread. The pharmacists quickly adopted telemedicine (telepharmacy) as a solution against this crisis, but awareness about this technology is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore the patients' perspectives and preferences regarding telepharmacy instead of traditional in-person visits.

METHODS

An electronic questionnaire was designed and sent to 313 patients who were eligible for the study (from March to April 2021). The questionnaire used five-point Likert scales to inquire about motivations for adopting telepharmacy and in-person visits, their perceived advantages and disadvantages, and the declining factors of telepharmacy. Finally, the results were descriptively analyzed using SPSS 22.

RESULTS

Of all 313 respondents, a total of 241 (77%) preferred appointments via telepharmacy while 72 (23%) preferred in-person services. There was a significant difference between the selection percentage of telepharmacy and in-person services (chi-square 91.42; p < 0.0001). Preference bout the telepharmacy system versus in-person visits to the pharmacy was associated with factors such as "reducing the incidence of contagious disease" (4.41; ± 0.78), "spending less time receiving pharmaceutical services" (4.24; ± 0.86)), and "traveling a shorter distance for receiving pharmaceutical services" (4.25; ± 0.86). "Reducing costs" (90.87%), "saving time" (89.21%), and "reducing the incidence of contagious disease" (87.13%) were the most important reasons for choosing telepharmacy services. Also, "face-to-face communication with the pharmacist" (25%), "low internet bandwidth" (25%), and "reduction of patients' anxiety and the increase of their peace of mind" (23.61%) were the most important reasons for choosing in-person visits.

CONCLUSION

Survey data indicate that most participants are likely to prefer the use of telepharmacy, especially during crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Telepharmacy can be applied as an important means and a crucial service to lessen the load on healthcare organizations and expand drug supply shelters in pharmacies. However, there are still substantial hurdles to overcome in order to successfully implement the telemedicine platform as part of mainstream practice.

Jordanian experience: The internet pharmacy drug delivery platform during the COVID-19

The present study aimed to see how well the newly designed internet hospital drug delivery platform model worked in the pharmacy department during the COVID-19 pandemic to make it easier for patients to get their prescribed drugs during the home quarantine. Methods: The internet hospital drug delivery platform was designed and activated by the pharmacy department in collaboration with the information technology department. The pharmacy department, in partnership with the information technology department, built and launched the internet hospital drug delivery platform (IHDD) immediately after the Jordanian government declared a full lockdown. Results: During the quarantine, a total of 5994 prescriptions, including 28494 medications, were delivered to 4853 patients. The majority of the patients (n = 1835; 37.8%) were aged 60 to 74.Nearly three quarters (4722; 78.8%) of the patients were from Amman, the capital of Jordan, and the top five online prescription departments were cardiology (n = 1737, 31.6%), endocrinology (n = 624, 11.4%), nephrology (n = 557, 10.1%), respiratory (n = 462, 8.4%), and neurology (n = 412, 7.5%). Conclusion: The IHDD platform was found to be efficient and convenient because it handled the challenge of precisely delivering medications to patients on time. To meet the pandemic's challenge, the pharmacy department has extended its inventive powers. In addition to safeguarding the environment, health technology was used to provide a coordinated, systematic program for the administration of medications. The pharmacy department, in partnership with the information technology department, built and deployed the internet hospital drug distribution infrastructure shortly after Jordan's government proclaimed a full lockdown. During the quarantine, a total of 5994 prescriptions, including 28494 medications, were delivered to 4853 patients. The majority of the patients (n = 1835; 37.8%) were between the ages of 60 and 74.Nearly three quarters (4722; 78.8%) of the patients were from Amman, the capital of Jordan, and the top five online prescription departments were cardiology (n = 1737, 31.6%), endocrinology (n = 624, 11.4%), nephrology (n = 557, 10.1%), respiratory (n = 462, 8.4%), and urology (n = 412, 7.5%). The pharmacy department has expanded its capabilities creatively to face the challenge posed by the pandemic. Health technology was utilized to ensure a coordinated, systematic program for the delivery of medications, in addition to preserving the safety of the dedicated staff.

Outpatients' Opinion And Experience Regarding Telepharmacy During The COVID-19 Pandemic: The Enopex Project

Background

Telepharmacy, as a remote pharmaceutical care procedure, is being used worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of preserving the health of patients and professionals. Its future development should incorporate the assessment of patient perception, but no research study has investigated it.

Objective

The objective was to poll the opinions and experiences of outpatients with telepharmacy through a purpose-developed questionnaire and to assess it’s quality through an internal validity and reliability analysis.

Methods

Cross-sectional observational study of adult patients who used telepharmacy services during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Spain. The subjects answered a 24-item questionnaire, after giving their informed consent. Place of delivery, informed pharmacotherapeutic follow-up, opinion about telepharmacy, future development, ethics/satisfaction, and coordination constituted the six questionnaire categories. After assessing the adequate sample size with the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test, the Bartlett sphericity test analyzed the validity of the questionnaire. The intraclass correlation coefficient and Cronbach’s α coefficient calculations verified the reliability and internal consistency.

Results

A total of 9442 interviews were administered to patients from 81 hospitals, of which 8079 were valid (52.8% female). A 54.1% were aged between 41–65 years; 42.7% had been in treatment for more than 5 years; 42.8% lived between 6–31 miles from the hospital. As many as 96.7% of patients were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with telepharmacy, 97.5% considering it complementary to their usual follow-up; 55.9% expressed a preference for being followed up face to face when visiting the hospital. 75.6% said they had rather receive their medication at home. The sample size obtained was deemed appropriate [the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test (0.789) and Bartlett’s sphericity test (p<0.005)]. The reliability analysis resulted in a Cronbach α = 0.7.

Conclusion

Patients have shown high satisfaction with telepharmacy and the ENOPEX questionnaire is a tool with sufficient validity and reliability to be used in the evaluation of the care that patients receive through telepharmacy.

Telepharmacy during COVID-19: A Scoping Review

The objective of this scoping review is to summarize the implementation of telepharmacy during the surge of COVID-19. This review will focus on answering four questions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, (1) what were the various telepharmacy initiatives implemented? (2) what were the challenges faced when implementing telehealth initiatives? (3) what were the strategies used by pharmacies to overcome the challenges, and (4) what were some of the innovative methods used by pharmacies to implement telepharmacy? A literature search was conducted to include publications post-March 2020 about telepharmacy implementation via PubMed Central database and Google searches. All articles were examined for inclusion or exclusion based on pre-determined criteria. A total of 33 articles were reviewed. The most commonly observed telepharmacy initiatives were virtual consultations, home delivery of medicines and patient education. Limited access to technology and lack of digital access and literacy were major barriers in the implementation of telepharmacy. New protocols were developed by healthcare systems and regulations were relaxed by countries to accommodate telepharmacy. Pharmacies that successfully implemented telepharmacy overcame these challenges through patient and pharmacist education. The review also revealed the steps that can be taken by pharmacy organizations, payers and entrepreneurs in leveraging the convenience of telepharmacy.

Provision of pharmaceutical care to suspected high-risk COVID-19 patients through telehealth: a nationwide simulated patient study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has overburdened the healthcare facilities, which demanded the use of alternative and effective methods for delivering healthcare services. The use of telehealth has become a necessity to provide initial health services.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the pharmaceutical care provided by community pharmacists to suspected high-risk COVID-19 patients using telehealth.

METHODS

A simulated patient (SP) phoned 100 randomly-selected community pharmacies throughout Lebanon using a standard scenario of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus with typical symptoms of COVID-19. Pharmacists' responses were compared with pre-defined ideal recommendations using a special form.

RESULTS

The mean of the retrieved medical information score obtained by the pharmacists was 2.48 ± 2.79 (out of 21), with 34 % of the participants not retrieving any relevant medical data from the SP. The relative patient information, the exposure to COVID-19, and the possible COVID-19 symptoms were not retrieved by 61 %, 70 %, and 41 % of the pharmacists, respectively. Two percent of the pharmacists assured that the SP's symptoms were related to common cold, while 5 % confirmed that the SP is infected with COVID-19. Notably, 35 % of the pharmacists did not offer any recommendation. Among them, 14 % claimed that they were too busy to respond. Only 39 % of the pharmacists provided an appropriate recommendation by referring the SP to her physician to seek medical attention within 24 h since the SP is a high-risk patient, and 41 % recommended doing a PCR test. Antipyretics, antibiotics, and dietary supplements were recommended by 27 %, 7 %, and 16 % of the pharmacists, respectively. Less than 16 % of the pharmacists recommended using protective measures against COVID-19. In addition, the overall communication skills of the pharmacists were generally below expectations.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first to assess the quality of pharmaceutical care provided by community pharmacists in the Middle East via Telehealth. An unsatisfactory level of preparedness through means of telehealth technology was evident. This resulted in the quality of pharmaceutical-care services provided to high-risk patients via telehealth to be below expectations. Therefore, health authorities should encourage community pharmacists to effectively adopt telehealth, by providing appropriate training, as well as recognizing their extra efforts with financial compensations, aiming to optimize patients' health outcomes.

The Particularities of Pharmaceutical Care in Improving Public Health Service during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nowadays, humanity is confronted with one of the most difficult challenges. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified for the first time in Hubei, China in December 2019 and produced the COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating disease that led to many complications and deaths. The authorities and the global healthcare system have been alerted regarding the prevention and treatment of this pathology. Even though worldwide quarantine was declared, health care professionals, including pharmacists, have been at the frontline in this war. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities relied on the involvement of the community, hospital, or clinical pharmacists in offering support to the entire population. Also, the authorities implemented measures for emergency authorization of the vaccines, or the drugs used in COVID-19 treatment. In order to facilitate the population's access to healthcare services, the authorities have established regulations regarding, the extension of prescriptions by pharmacists, working hours, prevention of shortages and price-increase, drive-thru services, etc. However, several countries have taken financial measures to support the pharmacies' activity. At the same time, pharmaceutical associations elaborated guidelines for the protection of pharmacists and patients alike. Additionally, the pharmacies have come to support the health system and patients by adapting pharmaceutical care to the new needs like preparation and supply of disinfectants, patient care, information, and counseling, especially to COVID-19 patients, as well as the implementation of home drugs-delivery systems. The important roles played by pharmacists were to perform COVID-19 tests and further vaccines, as well as to combat the abundance of misinformation and fake news. The clinical and hospital pharmacy services have also been adapted. Strengthening the role of the pharmacist in the medical team was important for the purpose of providing correct and complete information regarding drugs used in the COVID-19 pathology. In all these activities, pharmacists needed creativity and professionalism, but also the support of pharmacy owners and managers. With this crisis, pharmaceutical care has entered a new phase, demonstrating the ability of pharmacists to be competent and accessible providers of public health. Based on this information, we conducted a narrative review whose purpose was to identify the impact of the authorities' decisions on pharmaceutical practice, the involvement of professional associations, and the responsibilities of the pharmacy owners and management. On the other hand, we performed a global assessment on the pharmaceutical care services provided by community pharmacists as well as by clinical or hospital pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Models of care for chronic myeloid leukemia patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: Changes in patient attitudes to remote consultations and future implications

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous challenges to the provision of patient care within hematology. We undertook a questionnaire-based study investigating the experiences and opinions of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the UK in relation to the different models of follow-up care received during the pandemic. One hundred fifty-four patients completed the online questionnaire. Only 19% of patients had experienced remote clinics prior to the pandemic compared with 91% afterward. After having experience of remote clinics, the proportion of patients who were positive about the remote clinic concept increased from 34% to 52% (P < .05). However, when asked to compare their experiences with face to face versus remote clinics, 48% preferred face-to-face clinics compared with 17% preferring remote clinics (35% expressed no preference). During the pandemic, frequency of blood tests was unchanged for 71% of patients, although they were performed in a number of different locations. The majority of patients (57%) had medication delivered to their home, with a small number (8%) having difficulty obtaining their medication. In terms of future models of care, 72% of patients were in favor of building remote appointments into the clinic model with 61% expressing a preference for a mixture of remote and face-to-face appointments. There was also interest in greater utilization of primary care for blood testing. Our findings should help optimize future models of care for CML patients.

Health Systems and Services During COVID-19: Lessons and Evidence From Previous Crises: A Rapid Scoping Review to Inform the United Nations Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery

This rapid scoping review has informed the development of the November 2020 United Nations Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery, by providing a synthesis of available evidence on the impact of pandemics and epidemics on (1) essential services and (2) health systems preparedness and strengthening. Emerging findings point to existing disparities in health systems and services being further exacerbated, with marginalized populations and low- and middle-income countries burdened disproportionately. More broadly, there is a need to further understand short- and long-term impacts of bypassed essential services, quality assurance of services, the role of primary health care in the frontline, and the need for additional mechanisms for effective vaccine messaging and uptake during epidemics. The review also highlights how trust—of institutions, of science, and between communities and health systems—remains central to a successful pandemic response. Finally, previous crises had repeatedly foreshadowed the inability of health systems to handle upcoming pandemics, yet the reactive nature of policies and practices compounded by lack of resources, infrastructure, and political will have resulted in the current failed response to COVID-19. There is therefore an urgent need for investments in implementation science and for strategies to bridge this persistent research–practice gap.

COVID-19 related regulatory change for pharmacists - The case for its retention post the pandemic

The delivery of healthcare including the provision of pharmacy services globally is highly regulated internationally in order to protect public health and welfare. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated the need internationally to amend the model of regulation in order to ensure that people were able to continue to access a range of healthcare services in a timely and effective manner. Many of the changes introduced to the regulation of pharmacy services in Ireland have been replicated in other countries. These include the introduction of electronic means to transmit prescriptions and other orders for medications, relaxing the legal restrictions in place controlling the emergency supply of prescription only medicines and more fully utilizing the professional competency of pharmacists by empowering them to use their expertise and judgment to support their patients accessing the healthcare services that they need. Many of the regulatory changes that have been introduced to support the COVID-19 public health emergency effort are ones that pharmacists have previously sought to enable them provide a more effective and expanded model of pharmaceutical care to their patients. Accordingly, many pharmacists will want these regulatory changes to be retained and further expanded in the aftermath of the COVID-19 public health emergency in order to extend their scope of practice and support them in the care of their patients.

Audiology in the time of COVID-19: practices and opinions of audiologists in the UK

OBJECTIVE

To document changes in audiology practice resulting from COVID-19 restrictions and to assess audiologists' opinions about teleaudiology.

DESIGN

A survey consisting of closed-set and open-ended questions that assessed working practices during the COVID-19 restrictions and audiologists' attitudes towards teleaudiology.

SAMPLE

About 120 audiologists in the UK recruited via snowball sampling through social media and emails.

RESULTS

About 30% of respondents said they had used teleaudiology prior to COVID-19 restrictions; 98% had done at the time of survey completion, and 86% said they would continue to do so even when restrictions are lifted. Reasons for prior non-use of teleaudiology were associated with clinical limitations/needs, available infrastructure and patient preferences. Respondents believe teleaudiology will improve travel, convenience, flexibility and scheduling, that it will have little/no impact on satisfaction and quality of care, but that it will negatively impact personal interactions. Concerns about teleaudiology focussed on communication, inability to conduct some clinical procedures and technology.

CONCLUSIONS

Respondents' experience with teleaudiology has generally been positive however improvements to infrastructure and training are necessary, and because many procedures must be conducted in-person, it will always be necessary to have hybrid-care pathways available.