COVID-19 and telemedicine: A netnography approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has consolidated some trends that already existed in our society. Perhaps one of the most visible is the transformation of society towards greater digitisation. Digitalisation has gained weight in all aspects of our lives, and from the point of view of the health system we find an example in the slow historical adoption of telemedicine, which contrasts sharply with the massive conversion to this technology as a tool for social distancing. In this sense, the homebound population is the one most affected by the pandemic and the one that could benefit the most from the use of telemedicine. Using a netnography approach and based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm, this study proposes to analyse the evolution of perception about telemedicine using the opinions expressed on Twitter. The primary technical tasks of the study incorporate the analysis of topics and the review of emotions and positive image perception using natural language processing. Specifically, tweets about telemedicine generated by the Spanish community are analysed in this work. The findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected emotions and topics of interest related to telemedicine. This has changed the image that it had and the behaviour of the Twitter community in Spain. In conclusion, the study results suggest that changes in health systems affect people's emotions and behaviours.