Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Utilization of the Telemedicine Services in Dubai

Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Telemedicine was launched in Dubai in December 2019. The service provided live interaction between patients and physicians through videos simulating a consultation in a clinic. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This study is a multicenter comparative cross-sectional retrospective study that included 13 health centers in Dubai. The data in this study were taken before and during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic retrospectively. All patients from both telemedicine and primary health care (PHC) clinic visits were included. <b><i>Results and Discussion:</i></b> A total of 121,035 patients were involved in this study; there were 55,622 patients before COVID-19 and 65,413 patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the coronavirus pandemic, patient utilization of telemedicine increased significantly in comparison to patient visits to the PHC centers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 104 (0.2%) patients used telemedicine, while during the pandemic, the utilization of telemedicine increased to 9,183 (14%). More females than males preferred telemedicine use over visiting the PHC center. With the pandemic, elder patients used telemedicine more than the younger age groups. Telemedicine was used for different types of consultations such as acute, chronic, and COVID-19 related. The most common type of consultation in telemedicine during the pandemic was for chronic diseases (67.7%). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> In this comparative study, more patients used telemedicine in the time of COVID-19 pandemic whether it was for acute, chronic, or CO­VID-19-related consultations. Telemedicine proved to be a very useful tool at the time of disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.