Patient interest in and barriers to telemedicine video visits in a multilingual urban safety-net system

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Feb 15;28(2):349-353. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa234.

Authors

Elaine C Khoong^{1

2}, Blythe A Butler³, Omar Mesina^{3

4}, George Su⁵, Triveni B DeFries¹, Malini Nijagal⁶, Courtney R Lyles^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
² UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
³ School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁶ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.

Abstract

Objective: To determine interest in and barriers to video visits in safety-net patients with diverse age, racial/ethnic, or linguistic background.

Materials and methods: We surveyed patients in an urban safety-net system to assess: interest in video visits; ability to successfully complete test video visits; and barriers to successful completion of test video visits.

Results: Among 202 participants, of which 177 (87.6%) were persons of color and 113 (55.9%) preferred non-English languages, 132 (65.3%) were interested in and 109 (54.0%) successfully completed a test video visit. Younger age, non-English preference, and prior smartphone application use were associated with interest. Over half (n = 112) reported barriers to video visits; Internet/data access was the most common barrier (n = 50, 24.8%).

Conclusion: Safety-net patients are interested in video visits and able to successfully complete test visits. Internet or mobile data access is a common barrier in even urban safety-net settings and may impact equitable telemedicine access.

Keywords: digital divide; healthcare disparities; safety-net providers; telemedicine; vulnerable populations.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Attitude to Health* / ethnology
California
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Health Care Surveys
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Multilingualism*
Safety-net Providers*
Telemedicine*
Urban Health Services
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding