E-health. Patterns of use and perceived benefits and barriers among people living with HIV (PLHIV) and their physicians – Part 3: Telemedicine and collection of computerized personal information

Objectives

To evaluate the patterns of use and perceived benefits and barriers among people living with HIV and their physicians concerning telemedicine and the collection of computerized personal information.

Methods

Multicenter online observational survey from October 15 to 19, 2018.

Results

Study participation was accepted by 229 physicians and 838/1,377 PLHIV followed in 46 centers, of which 325 (39%) responded online. We found that while 226/302 (75%) PLHIV accept online prescription renewals and 197/302 (65%) accept online medical certificates, 182/302 (60%) PLHIV − who were more often in material/social deprivation (OR = 1.70 ± 0.45; P = 0.045), less often born in Île-de-France (OR = 0.43 ± 0.15; P = 0.018), with lower CD4 T-cell counts (OR = 0.999 ± 0.0004; P = 0.038), and less often on psychiatric treatment (OR = 0.50 ± 0.18; P = 0.047) − were receptive to teleconsultations. However, 137/225 (61%) physicians would be uncomfortable teleconsulting due to inadequate data security without it reducing the number of consultations or offering economic benefit. Asked about collection of computerized personal information, 197/296 (67%) PLHIV and 139/223 (62%) physicians agreed it improved quality of care, but 144 (49%) PLHIV and 94/222 (42%) physicians thought it was not sufficiently framed by the law. eHealth was seen as improving coordination between health professionals by 240/296 (81%) PLHIV and seen as a good thing by 181/225 (81%) physicians.

Conclusion

More than half of PLHIV were ready for telemedicine. PLHIV and physicians endorsed the advantage of e-health in terms of better coordination across health professionals but mistrust the data collection factor, which warrants either clarification or stronger legal protections.