ABSTRACT
In this era of rapidly changing practice and adoption of tele-neurology in clinical practice due to COVID-19 pandemic, we looked at the physician and patient preference for in-person vs virtual visits to guide clinical decisions about using telemedicine after the crisis is over. Data collected from 520 patient surveys revealed that 50% preferred in-person visits and 26% preferred virtual visits. Sixty-four percent reported physical face-to-face interaction as very important. For receiving a new diagnosis, 55% preferred in-person. Forty percent were worried about not being physically examined. Eightyfour percent believed virtual visits were sufficiently private. Sixty-eight percent did not consider expenses a factor in their decision. While 92% were comfortable with using technology, 55% preferred video communications, and 19% preferred phone calls. The visit preference was not significantly associated with gender, diagnosis, disease severity, and symptom management. Ninety-four neuromuscular specialists across the USA and Canada were phone surveyed in September 2020. 90.43% preferred physical visits when seeing new patients while 45% chose virtual visits for follow-ups. The majority thought that telemedicine reduces revenue (58.51%), quality of service (57.45%), and quality time spent with patients (62.77%). Nevertheless, most surveyed physicians agreed that telemedicine is time-efficient (84.04%), improves patient compliance (70.21%), and will be a long-term solution in clinical practice (67.02%). Fifty-eight percent revealed that telemedicine does not affect workload. The majority of neuromuscular physicians and patients preferred in-person visits for first interaction. Initial visit mandates physical exam that is key for diagnosis, but from patient perspective the significance of face-to-face interaction and non-verbal communication was higher. The importance of telemedicine for follow up visits can improve compliance, and may be beneficial for social and economic reasons. The prospect of improving the quality of care during a virtual interaction is an important factor to consider if we intend to increase satisfaction in the future.