Great hopes or disappointment – a survey-based study on patients’ and doctors’ perception of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

Introduction
During the COVID-19 pandemic health care systems worldwide rapidly implemented telemedicine solutions in order to avoid spreading the coronavirus among doctors and patients.

Aim
To analyse the knowledge, usage, and attitude towards telemedicine among patients, dermatologists, and other doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and methods
An original anonymous online survey was carried between 22 September 2020 and 29 December 2020 in Poland among 121 patients, 63 dermatologists, and 50 doctors of other specialties. Statistical analysis was performed using the c2 test, and a statistically significant difference was considered at p < 0.05.

Results
In the analysed period in the patient group 58.7% suffered from a skin disease and 79.3% used telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, 54.5% of all respondents viewed teleconsultations unfavourably, and 96.6% of dermatologists and 88% of other doctors had to schedule in office visit or ask for additional pictures because of an unclear clinical picture during teleconsultation. There was a statistical significance between dermatologists and other specialty doctors regarding telemedicine’s ability to replace office visits, its usefulness in the elderly, and the duration of the teleconsultation compared to a traditional in-person visit (all p < 0.05).

Conclusions
The results showed that in many cases issues raised during teleconsultations could not have been solved using telemedicine. The results obtained highlight the unfavourable perception of telehealth. Overall, telemedicine is a safe and useful tool for communicating with patients, increasing access to medical care, but it needs to be evaluated in the context of potential limitations and optimizing the patients’ experience.