ABSTRACT
Introduction/Aim: Telehealth has been rapidly adopted by cystic fibrosis (CF) centres in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing use in routine CF care is endorsed by CF consumers. Data describing CF clinician perceptions and experiences with telehealth are scarce. These data are crucial to inform the future use of telehealth in CF care. We aimed to describe clinician experiences and attitudes towards telehealth in CF care among multidisciplinary health professionals across Australian paediatric and adult CF centres. Method(s): An anonymous electronic survey was sent to CF multidisciplinary health professionals from all CF clinics in Australia on a single occasion. The survey consisted of 48 questions designed by a multidisciplinary team. Result(s): Eighty-five responses were received representing 15/23 (65%) centres. Respondents worked in a mixture of paediatric (57.6%), adult (36.5%) and combined (5.9%) settings. Most clinicians reported using telehealth for routine clinic visits and a range of other clinical encounters (69.9%). Telehealth was widely perceived as acceptable (91.8%), and clinicians were comfortable/very comfortable (81.2%) integrating telehealth into future CF care. Despite this, 64.1% of respondents considered telehealth clinics to be much worse than face-to-face clinics and 57.5% reported quality of care was somewhat/much worse using telehealth. Home spirometry was available in 73.7% of centres, however, only 26.7% of clinics could provide spirometers for >75% eligible patients. Growth and microbiology assessments were often missed in telehealth clinics and 75.7% reported a technical issue had prevented a telehealth consultation from occurring. Conclusion(s): Telehealth for CF in Australia is considered feasible and acceptable by CF health professionals, although use of telehealth varies widely between centres. Concerns exist around the impact of telehealth on health outcomes;especially given core assessments are frequently omitted. National guidelines may help ensure the benefits of telehealth are realised for people with CF without compromising the standard of care.