REMOTE POSSIBILITY
A recent study shows men are receptive to telemedicine as it becomes more common
Longtime advocates of online health services had to chuckle as, all of a sudden, it became possible and even desirable to have phone and video visits with your doctor. I’ve done it myself, with two different docs, and while I missed their smiling faces, we certainly got the job done. In both cases, their great bedside manners came through over the phone, and they can now get paid for this service in Alberta at the same rate as an office visit.
Video-conferenced medicine services have been available to some Canadians for many years. The Ontario Telemedicine Network says in its annual report, that it facilitated nearly 900,000 patient consultations in 2017-18, saving nearly $72 million. It’s also good for the planet as this approach prevented 270 million kilometres of patient travel.
What will telemedicine mean for men? Will we be willing to show our jock itch over video?
Diving into that exact anatomical area, urologists led by Boyd R.
Viers and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic studied 1,378 patients, 79 per cent of them male, and found about two-thirds of both men and women say they would be likely to accept a video visit. For the males, the three most common complaints likely to be seen by video were urinary stone disease, erectile dysfunction, and urinary tract infection.
Factors that made people more likely to accept a video visit included having a college education, having previous video conference experience, being comfortable discussing sensitive information, and playing an active role in their health care.
So, there’s definitely hope that the convenience and gee whizzery of seeing the doctor online will get more men engaged with their health care.
A digital visit may actually be better in some ways, especially if the doctor is inside your phone. A new study in the Journal of Marketing suggests that smartphones can act as a kind of digital truth serum. Researchers led by Shiri Melumad of the Wharton School found that “consumers tend to be more self-disclosing when generating content on their smartphone versus personal computer.”
They attributed the willingness to be honest on your phone to “feelings of comfort many associate with their smartphone” as well as a “tendency to narrowly focus attention on the disclosure task at hand due to the relative difficulty of generating content on the smaller device.”
There’s no question that COVID-19 disruptions have pushed many Canadians into depression and other mental illnesses. A recent survey by Mental Health Research Canada found that the percentage of men expressing high, very high or extreme anxiety rose from 13 per cent before COVID-19 to 44 per cent after the pandemic started. High to extreme depression rates for men surged from 12 per cent to 24 per cent.
Psychology professor David Dozois of Western University explained that “it’s harder for males to get out and interact, and with social distancing, you’re either stuck with your own feelings if you are alone or in relationships that probably are a little strained from being together 24/7.”
The federal government is providing $240 million to help bring health care online, with a particular focus on mental health and marginalized communities.
In the early days of video health care, people thought that it would be great for showing a toenail fungus but not well suited to mental health. It turns out that telepsychiatry has been a huge success, and, according to a study published in 2019 in an insurance industry publication called Spark!, it may become a necessary option.
“Canada has a serious shortage of psychiatrists which is likely to worsen, as demand for treatment grows and supply declines,” writes author Georgia Pomaki.
It’s worth noting there is a wide range in quality of online health services, from ones that are basically prescription mills for possibly counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs to reputable sites staffed by health professionals. An example of the latter is Dermago, which launched in Quebec in 2017 and is moving to expand nationally. For a fee, you get a web-based consultation with a board-certified dermatologist, as well as prescriptions if necessary. Rates are $249.99 for a visit within 24 hours and $179.99 if you can wait longer (72 hours).
Is this legal? In a discussion on the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre’s website, patient navigation adviser Paul Taylor explains how they are able to do this.
“Canadian doctors can’t charge for services that would usually be covered under our publicly funded health-care system,” he writes, but “the fact that an online dermatology consultation isn’t on the list of insured ‘medically necessary’ services means they can just do it.”
Since that policy is changing, the business model of these commercial “skip the waiting room” services might be in peril.
Still, we have to tip our hats to them and, ironically, to the COVID-19 pandemic, for bringing guys into the world of telemedicine, at least from the waist up.