RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Working Framework for Appropriate Use of Virtual Care in Primary Care
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 629
OP 633
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2022.03.210469
VO 35
IS 3
A1 Segal, Jodi B.
A1 Davis, Stacey
A1 Dukhanin, Vadim
YR 2022
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/35/3/629.abstract
AB Background: Given the absence of guidelines for use of virtual visits for primary care delivery, a framework is needed to inform the most appropriate use of virtual visits.Methods: We conducted in-depth, structured interviews of 18 patients, primary care clinicians, and other select informants. They were asked to discuss optimal, acceptable, and suboptimal uses of telemedicine for delivering care relative to in-person care delivery. The concepts expressed informed our development of a framework about appropriate use of virtual visits.Results: The 103 concepts supported 5 main themes that emerged as a framework: clinical situations which are optimal for in-person care; situations optimal for virtual visits; situations that might be exchangeable between sites; contextual factors favoring in-person care; and contextual factors favoring virtual visits.Conclusions: After further validation, we expect that this framework may guide future research and practice: it may be valuable for clinical practice redesign, for designing evaluations of the outcomes of virtual visits, for outcomes research, for patient education, for triage, and possibly for reimbursement considerations.