The new issue brief published by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) https://improvediagnosis.org funded through a PCORI Engagement Initiative, reports that not enough has been done to understand the accuracy or efficacy of diagnoses delivered by telemedicine.
The TeleDx project, a literature review and a series of interviews, found that while health systems surveyed patient satisfaction with telemedicine, they did not measure the accuracy of diagnoses presented via telemedicine.
SIDM reports the TeleDx project identifies a critical gap in the health system’s understanding of telemedicine as an estimated one in ten diagnoses are incorrect. These inaccurate or delayed diagnoses affect more than 12 million Americans each year with most people experiencing an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis at some point in their life. With the growth of telemedicine during the pandemic, understanding how tele-diagnosis impacts diagnostic quality and safety is critical.
Questions about tele-diagnosis still exist regarding technology obstacles certain patients face. Researchers are questioning how can telemedicine replicate the benefits of in-person visits using the screen, how can telehealth simplify and make routine testing and evaluation more efficient, how can patient surveys ask about accuracy, and can better tracking reporting missed in diagnoses be more accurate via virtual care?
Researchers reviewed 2,597 abstracts and 210 full texts from the last three years, along with blogs, Twitter chats, and other secondary literature texts. Researchers conducted a ten year lookback at an additional 203 abstracts and 35 full texts. SIDM obtained diverse perspectives by interviewing patients and caregivers, clinicians, clinical practices, telemedicine industry reps, and hospital/health system leaders.
Go to https://improvediagnosis.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/081/Final-Project-Findings-TeleDx.pdf for the new issue brief Improving TeleDiagnosis: A Call to Action Final Project Findings