Healthcare providers are continuously challenged to find innovative,
cost-effective alternatives and to scale up existent services to meet the growing demand upon
mental health care delivery. Due to continuous advances in
technologies, telepsychiatry has become an effective tool for psychiatric care. In 2012, the Institute of
Psychiatry of the
University of São Paulo
Medical School started a randomized
clinical trial of home-based telepsychiatric
outpatient care via
videoconferencing.
Objective:
The objective of this article is to describe the design,
methodology and implementation of a
pilot project, which aimed to verify the applicability and
efficiency of psychiatric attendance via
Internet-based
videoconferencing in a
resource-constrained
environment.
Methods:
The project consisted of a 12 months
follow-up study with a randomized
clinical trial, which compared various quality
indicators between home-based telepsychiatric
aftercare via
videoconferencing and
face-to-
face aftercare.
Results:
The final sample comprised 107
outpatients (53 in the telepsychiatry group and 54 in the
control group). Among 1,227 realized
consultations, 489 were held by
videoconferencing.
Satisfaction with the
aftercare by
videoconferencing and the medication delivery was high among
patients. Attending
psychiatrists were satisfied with the assistance by
videoconferencing.
Discussion:
The experiences during this
pilot project have overall been very positive and psychiatric
outpatient care by
videoconferencing seems viable to treat
patients even in a
resource-constrained
environment...