“For all patients who need to consult more frequently, telemedicine helps improve quality of life while maintaining medical efficiency,” summarizes one of the lead authors, Kristen Krause, professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “Our study highlights the already well-documented benefits of telemedicine, particularly for patients who need more regular and frequent monitoring ».
The study followed 133 patients living with HIV during the pandemic, between October 2020 and June 2021, when telemedicine was practically imposed. The analysis confirms that:
- this forced transition to telehealth does not seem to have hindered the treatment of patients, nor harmed their state of health;
- 98.5% of participants were able to see or speak to a health professional for their “HIV” follow-up;
- 69.2% of participants were able to consult their usual doctor via telehealth;
- only 9% had difficulty obtaining their antiretroviral treatment (ART) during this telehealth period;
- among patients who regularly used telehealth, 65.3% reported being “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the responses to their medical care needs;
- 92.4% rated the overall quality of telehealth care as “excellent,” “very good,” or “good”;
- the vast majority of patients maintained their health outcomes: in this specific case of HIV, 65.7% of participants achieved or maintained an undetectable viral load and 86.9% had a CD4 count of 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood or more, suggesting a healthy immune system.
Taken together, these data confirm that for patients already engaged in caretelehealth allowed the normal continuation of treatment and ultimately had no negative health consequences.
This post-pandemic decline therefore suggests today and beyond HIV, the particular benefit of telehealth for patients needing regular medical monitoring.
