Abstract
BACKGROUND: Telemedicine, though it existed in India over the last few decades, took great strides during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was partly due to the nationwide lockdown, and beneficiaries and healthcare providers were ready to use telemedicine. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study is to highlight the perceptions of patients and doctors on telemedicine services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 203 patients and 23 doctors who used telemedicine services participated in six months from April 2020. This study was developed with two sets of pretested questionnaires for patients and doctors on their experiences with telemedicine. The patient's group had 16 and the doctor's group had nine questions in five-point Likert scale formats. Data were collected and analyzed using simple statistical tools in MS Excel. RESULTS: Waiting time for consultation was half an hour to two hours. The consultation duration was less than 20 minutes in 90% of cases. More than 50% of patients were satisfied, and 36% were unsatisfied. A high positive correlation found in audio quality (r = 0.71) and overall satisfaction (r = 0.84), moderate positive correlation found in video quality (r = 0.63). However, a very negligible correlation between the two groups was found in ease of connectivity (r = 0.006). CONCLUSION: The study concluded that the acceptability of telemedicine is good both by doctors and patients. With the solution of legal clearance and data privacy concerns, telemedicine will be one of the prime modes of delivering healthcare services in the future.