Optimizing the Patient Telemedicine Experience in an Orthopaedic Clinic

Sinkler, Margaret A; Dolan, Joshua D; Steflik, Michael J; Harimtepathip, MD, Peter; Cox, J. Shell; Parada, MD, Stephen A

With the rapid advancements in today’s technology, the telemedicine model of healthcare has become an increasingly useful tool for healthcare providers and patients to interact outside of the confines of a traditional office visit. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many providers have been forced to adopt a component of telemedicine into their practice. In an effort to improve the telemedicine system for continued use, 519 patients in an orthopaedic clinic at a Level One academic system were surveyed on their willingness and confidence to use telemedicine in future orthopaedic visits. Though most patients reported that they had been unwilling to use telemedicine for their current visit, the majority were neutral or willing to use telemedicine in the future. In this study, we present some challenges to the orthopaedic telemedicine visit, patient sentiment towards the current and future use of telemedicine in orthopaedics, as well as possible direction for improvement so that telemedicine can be better incorporated into the orthopaedic clinic.