Telemedicine Effectiveness in the First Elective Orthopedic Care Compared to a Standard Face-to-face Visit

Objective  The study aimed to compare whether the diagnoses of orthopedic diseases at telemedicine (TM) consultations are the same as those established at face-to-face visits. Method  Primary, observational, prospective, analytical study, with subjects from the local municipal network who were referred to the orthopedics outpatient clinic from May to June 2021. Subjects underwent two assessments: a telemedicine (TM) consultation and a face-to-face (FF) visit. Two different physicians attended to the patients and established a diagnosis. The physician performing the FF visit was not aware of the previous diagnoses. We compared the diagnoses obtained at both modalities to assess the degree of similarity. In addition, we determined the time required for consultations and the degree of satisfaction of the physicians. Results  We evaluated 43 patients and seven physicians, totaling 44 TM and 43 FF visits. The diagnostic similarity index was 81.4%. TM consultations were shorter (mean time, 4.8 minutes) than FF visits. Physicians were less satisfied with TM in the four criteria evaluated (respective scores of 79.1, 23.3, 46.6, and 37.2). Conclusion  TM consultations have a diagnoses agreement higher than 80% compared with FF visits. On the other hand, TM consultations were faster, and physicians were less satisfied with them in comparison with FF visits.