eConsulta is a tele-consultation service involving doctors and patients, and is part of Catalonia's public health information technology system. The service has been in operation since the end of 2015 as an adjunct to face-to-face consultations.
eConsulta is one of the services offered in their Personal Health Folder, a personal digital space that provides access to personal health information, allowing them to make enquiries and perform specific actions. Following a secure authentication process, patients can access an interface that allows them to submit their query and attach files, if necessary. The portal can be customised and keeps a record of previous teleconsultations.
We have been evaluating this service and publishing the results in open, peer reviewed scientific journals.
General Practitioners’ Perceptions of Whether Teleconsultations Reduce the Number of Face-to-face Visits in the Catalan Public Primary Care System: Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
López Seguí F, Vidal-Alaball J, Sagarra Castro M, García-Altés A, García Cuyàs F
J Med Internet Res 2020;22(3):e14478
There was broad consensus among the GPs that eConsulta has the potential to resolve patient queries for every type of consultation. eConsulta avoided the need for a face-to-face visit in 87.9% of cases. In addition, the GPs reported that the ease of access increased the demand for health care support in 27.7% of cases; otherwise, the patient would not have initiated the queries. Therefore, based on the equation (88% x [1-28%]), eConsulta could replace 63%-88% of conventional appointments.
Based on the GPs’ perceptions, eConsulta could replace 63%-88% of conventional appointments. Therefore, asynchronous teleconsultations between practitioners and patients in primary care could avoid interactions that have limited added clinical value.
Primary Care Doctor Characteristics That Determine the Use of Teleconsultations in the Catalan Public Health System: Retrospective Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study
Fernández OS, Seguí FL, Vidal-Alaball J, Bonet Simo JM, Vian OH, Cabo PR, Hernandez MC, Dominguez CO, Reig XA, Rodríguez YD, Peralta MM, Hermosilla E, León NM, Guimferrer N, González MA, Cuyàs FG, Sust PP
JMIR Med Inform 2020;8(1):e16484
Doctors who use eConsulta are 45-54 years of age, score higher than the 80th percentile on the quality of care index, have a high degree of accessibility, are involved in teaching, and work on a health team in a high socioeconomic urban setting.
The results suggest that certain sociodemographic characteristics associated with general practitioners determine whether they use eConsulta. These results must be taken into account if its deployment is to be encouraged in the context of a public health system.
Teleconsultations between Patients and Healthcare Professionals in Primary Care in Catalonia: The Evaluation of Text Classification Algorithms Using Supervised Machine Learning.
López Seguí F, Ander Egg Aguilar R, de Maeztu G, García-Altés A, García Cuyàs F, Walsh S, Sagarra Castro M, Vidal-Alaball J.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 9;17(3):1093.
The study illustrates the possible capacities of text analysis using artificial intelligence. The development of a robust text classification tool could be feasible by validating it with more data, making it potentially more useful for decision support for health professionals
Ha llegado para quedarse: beneficios e inconvenientes de la eConsulta
Vidal-Alaball J, Lopez Seguí F.
Atención Primaria Práctica. Vol 2. Issues 1-2
El uso creciente de la herramienta (también en los entornos de la sanidad privada, tradicionalmente más tecnificada) sugiere que la eConsulta ha llegado para quedarse. La buena noticia es el conjunto de artículos, algunos citados aquí, que informarán al decisor sanitario acerca de sus características e impactos para que acierte en la toma de decisiones.
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