Impact of telemedicine on assisted reproduction treatment in the public health system

Abstract

Aim: Telemedicine has helped to make health care more efficient. However, to date no studies have measured its impact on infertility and fertility healthcare. We assessed the potential care benefits and clinical advantages of an initiative implementing electronic patient portal (EPP) for patients scheduled to undergo assisted reproduction treatment, to reduce waiting times for medical consultation and treatment.

Methods: This was designed as a retrospective cohort study. The experimental group comprised 1972 referral requests received by the assisted reproduction unit of our institution between 2015 and 2016, which were included in the group receiving telemedicine, while the control group was defined by 283 requests received in 2013, all of which were assigned face-to-face care.

Results: We found a statistically significant reduction in the experimental group in terms of the days elapsed between the receipt of the assessment request and the first outpatient visit (68 days vs. 180 days, p<.001). Time to initiation of treatment was also significantly lower in this group (169 days vs. 229 days; p<.001). The experimental group contained around 7 times as many patients receiving treatment as the control group. No differences were observed in the pregnancy rate (29.9% vs. 31.1%; p=.77) or in the complication rate (3.2% vs. 0%; p=.16).

Conclusions: Use of telemedicine in electronic portal patient form reduces the total waiting time involved in patient requests for infertility treatment and indirectly increases the number of patients treated, causing no negative impact on treatment outcome.

Keywords: Assisted reproductive techniques; Atención sanitaria electrónica; Fertilización in vitro; In vitro fertilization; Infertilidad; Infertility; Telemedicina; Telemedicine; Técnicas de reproducción asistida; e-health.