From Stethoscopes to Screens: Telemedicine in the Daily Lives of Hungarian GPs

Mária Kucsera, Elias Dally, Zsuzsanna Máté, Edit Paulik

Keywords: telemedicine, general practitioner (GP), satisfaction

Background:

"Digital Doctoring" has rapidly gained popularity in recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and its travel restrictions. Before the pandemic, telemedicine in Hungary was heavily restricted due to legal barriers. However, the crisis prompted significant legislative changes, allowing GPs to fully utilize telemedicine. Over the past year, we have monitored telemedicine adoption among GPs, focusing on identifying challenges and offering effective solutions.

Research questions:

What barriers are preventing GPs from fully utilizing telemedicine in their daily practice?
What are the main factors undermining GPs' trust in the system?
How can the telemedicine system be improved to address these issues and increase GP trust?

Method:

The self-administered questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among GPs in Hungary in 2024 and the part of the questionnaire for patients is currently ongoing...
The questionnaire collected data on demographics, telemedicine usage patterns, and attitudes toward telemedicine.
The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical methods (software: IBM SPSS 28.0). We calculated trust and MisTrust scores from the data and analysed which factors shape them.
The participation was voluntary and anonymous. Ethical approval for the study: BMEÜ-1777-1-2022-EKU.

Results:

The demographic distribution of the sample (N=481) represented the GPs in Hungary. GPs who used the telemedicine video consultation more often reported lower stress and they were more confident about their consultations (p<0.001). In contrast, physicians with low trust scores found telemedicine stressful, were unsuccessful in patient care, and never used video consultation (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

Future advancements in telehealth technology and policy development are essential to address the challenges and realize the full potential of telemedicine in general practice. To provide high-quality patient care using telemedicine systems, it is essential to educate the system's users, both in terms of device use, data protection, and communication.

Points for discussion:

Ways to improve telemedicine services in Hungary and in Europe

What is the status of telemedicine in other countries?

Are patients satisfied with the telemedicine services offered by their GPs?

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