(319) The Pandemic, Telemedicine, and Andrology: What Have We Learned?

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Telemedicine has gained wide acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was critical for patient care when lockdowns were implemented worldwide. While there has been evidence to suggest that urology patients were receptive to telemedicine, no systematic review has been done to date on andrology patients and their perception of telemedicine. Objective To assess the perception of andrology patients to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic Methods Three electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, were searched from their inception until June 2022 for relevant articles. Two independent teams reviewed abstracts and extracted data from the selected manuscripts. A meta-analysis was completed in line with PRISMA 2020 and AMSTAR Guidelines. For our study, we limited telemedicine to communication through videoconferencing or telephone encounters between patients and medical professionals. Positive response to telemedicine was defined as patients “wishing for telemedicine consultation”, “preferring telemedicine over in person”, “accepting the current telemedicine arrangement”, “having needs addressed with teleconsultation”, or “willingness to do a teleconsultation”. Results Of the 1128 retrieved abstracts, 56 underwent full-text review and 11 were included in the final analysis, comprising a total cohort of 2195 cases. Video visits were used in 7 studies, 2 used only telephone encounters, and one used both methods. 3 studies showed andrology and sexual medicine are compatible with telemedicine with a few 30 and 90-day in-person revisit rates. Telemedicine was shown to save an average cost of $149-252 per patient. All 8 studies that assessed the perception of andrology patients to telemedicine showed that most patients had a “positive perception”. Pooled analysis of the positive response to telemedicine was 73.7% (Figure 1) and that of patients who recommended telemedicine was 58.5%. While the percentage of patients (97%) recommending telemedicine is high among studies using videoconference, the percentage drops to 26.3% in studies using telephone visits only. In the latter group, up to 27.1% of patients preferred in-person visits, with security and privacy of either mode of telecommunication being a concern. Conclusions Most patients have a positive perception of telemedicine, particularly with videoconferencing, and less so with telephone visits. These results suggest that telemedicine will likely continue to play a pivotal role in andrology and sexual medicine practices. Disclosure Any of the authors act as a consultant, employee or shareholder of an industry for: Coloplast, Clarus Therapeutics, Antares Pharma, Acerus, Hims & Hers Health, Inc.