Telemedicine Versus Traditional Consultations in Clinical Genetics: Comparison of Patient Satisfaction Rates

Aims: Telemedicine is a service delivery model in which credentialed specialists provide care remotely to clients. Data regarding patient satisfaction with telemedicine consultations in the field of clinical genetics, and specifically pediatric genetics is lacking. We aimed to compare patient satisfaction rates from telemedicine versus traditional, face-to-face genetics consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey, sent to 1672 parents of minors (patients<18years), or adult patients, who received counseling through the Tel-Aviv Souraski Medical Center Genetics Institute between 1/1/2020–1/6/2020. Data was collected through REDCap and converted to Microsoft EXCEL Database Program (v16.0) and STATA (v14.1).

Results: Full responses were collected from 457 patients (27.3%). Of them, 330 patients (72.2%) had face-to-face consultations, 80 (17.5%) were counseled through telemedicine, and 47 had both (10.3%). Satisfaction or high satisfaction were reported in 82.1% in the face-to-face consultation group, while 6.3% were unsatisfied or unsatisfied at all, compared with 82.5% and 11.2% in the telemedicine group, respectively. Differences were insignificant statistically between the two groups. Data were further stratified according to subspecialties. Of total consults, 58 (12.7%) were in pediatric genetics. None of the patients who received pediatric genetics counseling solely through telemedicine were unsatisfied. Seventy-six percent of all patients who were counseled through telemedicine would want to use telemedicine services in the future, while 18.7% are undecided, and 5% do not.

Conclusions: Telemedicine consultations in the genetics clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically in pediatric genetics, were associated with high satisfaction rates, non-inferior to satisfaction rates from traditional consultations.