ESPE Abstracts

Background: Throughout 2020 telemedicine was rapidly deployed across health services and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, replaced many face-to-face (FTF) medical consultations. Children and young people (CYP) with diabetes present a unique opportunity for this type of consultation, due to the ability to interpret and share glucose data via other platforms. This study describes both CYP and parent experience of a new telemedicine service for CYP with diabetes.

Methods: Data were collected from a patient cohort looked after in a single paediatric diabetes service between April 2020 and August 2020. This period followed the rapid introduction of telemedicine consultations for all paediatric clinics due to COVID-19. Telemedicine clinic appointments were offered using the Attend Anywhere platform. Parents and young people were contacted by telephone after their telemedicine consultation and data regarding their experience were collected via semi-structured interviews. Results were analysed both quantitively and qualitatively.

Results: Data were analysed from 42 semi-structured interviews for 42 separate CYP, with an age range of 6-18 years. 60% of consultations were with more than one healthcare professional. 64% of interviewees described the video call quality as being just as good as FTF, with 36% describing it as satisfactory but not as good as FTF. The median time saved for patients was 1.5 hours (IQR 1.0-2.0 hours). “Time saved” was the most frequently expressed positive feedback. “Preferring face to face” was raised 8 times by responders as the most commonly reported negative feedback with “lack of Hba1c” the second most reported negative feedback. Overall, 45% interviewed described preferring remote consultation, 26% expressing no preference and 29% preferring FTF consultation. 93% of interviewees reported that they would be happy to use remote consulting again. Regarding the mode of consultation 81% reported their preference would be for video consultation, 5% reported a preference for telephone consultation and 10% expressed no preference for mode of remote consultation.

Conclusions: CYP and parents reported a high degree of satisfaction and acceptability with both the technical aspects of video consultation and the overall consultation. Ability to share diabetes data through online platforms makes telemedicine consultations effective. Some aspects of FTF diabetes consultation such as HbA1c measurement are more challenging. Video consultation is likely to increase in prevalence in the future not just with physical distancing secondary to COVID-19 but also with aims to reduce emissions from travel and reduce the healthcare time burden associated with chronic disease.