A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF PATIENT AND CONSULTANT SATISFACTION OF TELEDERMATOLOGIC APPLICATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THAILAND

Abstract

Teledermatology is becoming more popular recently as it might be a new transforming method to deliver healthcare services to the patients and also improve access to expertise, and improve quality of care. The reason that teledermatology is widely used because dermatologic lesions are obviously visible, it will be seen clearly via images and video. Since a COVID-19 was rapidly spread globally via respiratory droplets then was declared a pandemic in March,2020. Frequently washing hands, wearing facial mask and social distancing are become everyday essential as everybody can be a vector of transmission even the doctors. During this pandemic, there was a limited non-urgent out-patient visit and this made teledermatology become useful and well-known. Not only reduce the cost of healthcare but also reduce the rate of COVID-19 infection, developing teledermatology to be more accessible might be a huge benefit for both patients and doctors. Patient and consultant satisfaction of teledermatology is very important as it will be the most valuable as groundwork to develop the quality of the system and will lead to the further development of treatment strategies.The results revealed that acne is the number problem that patients concern and also the most common diagnosis dermatologists recorded during that time. This study showed 56.39% of patients were satisfied with the service with error margin 6.45% at 95% confident level and 8.77% of consultants were satisfied with the service with error margin 7.42% at 95% confident level.