Telemedicine Among Oral Medicine Practitioners During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Future Impact on the Specialty

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated wide-spread changes in delivery of dental care. Telemedicine utilization increased overnight during this pandemic because of its ability to enhance access to oral healthcare, easily link to remote area, time management, low cost, etc. We aimed to identify the utilization of telemedicine among oral medicine practitioners in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 pandemic and identify future impacts, potential challenges and barriers hindering the implementation of telemedicine. Methods: The present cross-sectional electronically self-administered supplement-based survey Supplement Based Survey study was conducted among different professional levels of oral medicine involving consultants, specialists, and residents. The supplement includes demographic data, the current use of telemedicine, participant's perspective on future implications, and potential barriers and limitations of telemedicine. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha (alpha) to assess how closely related a set of items in our study. Results: Of the total (N = 75) oral healthcare professionals, 52% were male, 70.7% were Saudi, 45.3% were consultant, 42.7% had 1-5 years of experience, 82.7% were practicing in urban areas, 93.3% stated COVID-19 affected their clinics, consultation was the major reason for the use of telemedicine before (50.7%) and during (72%) COVID-19 outbreak, 57.3% were communicating with their patients, 97.33% had not experienced any cyber risk, and 45% patients were satisfied with the telemedicine service; our data showed a high level of homogeneity (alpha = 0.82). The poor knowledge and training on telemedicine technologies may substantially (p < 0.05) impact the future implications of telemedicine in oral medicine practice. Conclusion: Telemedicine could be a useful adjunct for oral medicine practice, especially for remote diagnosis, consultation, referral, training and education. Our study emphasizes an urgent need to increase the awareness and education on how to utilize and practice telemedicine technologies among medical staff to maximize the efficiency.

Automated summary

The study found that telemedicine was widely adopted by oral medicine practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic for diagnosis and consultation, but challenges remain in terms of insufficient knowledge on telemedicine technologies.