Effectiveness of teleconsultations on the reduction of physical consultations in the context of acute infectious pathologies in primary care ; Efficacité de la télémédecine sur la réduction des consultations physiques dans le cadre de motifs infectieux de médecine générale

Importance: telemedicine (TLM) is experiencing considerable growth, but there is little data in France concerning its impact in primary care medicine. Objective: to define if telemedicine is effective in reducing the number of physical consultations in the context of common infectious in primary care. Design, setting and participants: For each of the following reasons, “urinary tract infection”, ”influenza-like illness”, “sinusitis”, “bronchitis”, “angina”, “rhinopharyngitis”, 34 Teleconsultation(TLC) files from the MedecinDirect database were randomly selected. Patient were called for each validated record and one questionnary was filled by the investigator if the patient had sufficient recall of the events. We distinguished three groups at the end of the data collection: group 1 is defined as the total number of patient who would have otherwise consulted a doctor, group 2 as the total number of patient who would not have consulted,and group 3 as the subset of patients from group 1 who had a physical consultation for the same reason within one month. Main outcome and measures: this is the percentage of physical consultations avoided, 1 - (Total number of group 3 / Total number of group 1 ) Results : of the 204 TLCs selected, 54 questionnaires were completed. The respective numbers of group 1, 2 and 3 were n = 43, n = 11, n = 21. This represent a 51.16% IC95 [36,75-65,38] of reduction in the number of physical consultations. Conclusions and relevance: TLC seem to be effective in reducing physical consultations in patients who use telemedicine platforms in this context. Studies with a higher level of evidence seem necessary to support these results. ; Contexte : la télémédecine (TLM) connaît un essor considérable, mais il existe peu de données en France concernant son impact en médecine générale. But de l’étude : déterminer si la TLM est efficiente sur la réduction du nombre de consultations physiques dans le cadre de motifs infectieux de médecine générale. Protocole : Pour chacun des motifs suivants, “infection ...