Use of Instant Multimedia Messaging Applications in Patient Follow-up in Hand Surgery: Retrospective Analysis and Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire Evaluation

Abstract

Objectives: Physicians can provide remote care services to patients through telemedicine applications such as photographs, videos, and telephone calls. One of the most frequently used applications among these mentioned applications is WhatsApp. In this study, we planned to sample the use of telemedicine in hand surgery via WhatsApp and present our results. In addition, another aim is to measure patient satisfaction in telemedicine-based follow-up in these patients via TSQ. Methods: Between January 2020 and January 2022, 102 patients who were operated in our clinic were communicated using the WhatsApp application throughout their treatment processes. Of the 102 patients in our study, 54 evaluated their telemedicine satisfaction with the TSQ. Results: Five clinical evaluation categories were prominent in our study. These were wound monitoring (51 patients), monitoring the physical therapy process (47 patients), follow-up of the pathology results (7 patients), recalled to the clinic for control (5 patients), follow-up of imaging examinations (4 patients). One of the findings obtained in our study was the decrease in the number of outpatient clinic admissions for patients contacted via WhatsApp. A minimum of 58 and a maximum of 70 points out of 70 were obtained from the TSQ applied in our study, and the average value is 64.07. Conclusion: The use of multimedia messaging applications such as WhatsApp can offer various advantages such as reducing the number of outpatient clinic visits and high patient satisfaction rates in patients being followed for hand surgery.