O-12 The use of Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic – Practices and attitudes of Jamaican physicians who care for children and adolescents

Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted among physicians utilising online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore physicians’ attitudes and practices, perceived advantages, challenges and barriers in telehealth use. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed and thematic analysis on verbatim transcripts. Data collection was conducted September to November 2021 after ethical approval.

Results: The survey was completed by 136 participants, 78 (56.9%) physicians reported using telehealth. During the pandemic 58 (74.4%) of these physicians reported an increase in their telehealth use. Realtime was the most frequently used modality (93.5%), physicians practicing in both rural and urban areas rated real-time as more effective than those who practiced in rural areas only (p<0.05), with no difference in effectiveness rating of modalities by site (private/public) or job category. Themes identified through interviews included benefits (increased accessibility, affordability, safety, and efficiency of care) and challenges (suboptimal technology/ infrastructure, lack of digital literacy, and providers’ level of confidence in diagnoses). Most participants had an accepting attitude, high level of satisfaction and motivation to continued telehealth use.

Conclusion: Physicians sampled are utilising telehealth more to care for children and adolescents. The modality most frequently used is real-time with overall satisfaction and acceptance towards telehealth. Minor barriers are reported while many benefits are acknowledged.