Abstract 4337531: Telehealth Experiences and Preferences Among Patients with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Abstract

Introduction: The American Heart Association (AHA) Center for Telehealth aims to address gaps in the telehealth landscape by guiding telehealth integration into outpatient settings for cardiovascular disease risk factor management. AHA’s Patient Solutions and Support team supports this goal by collaborating to develop health care professional (HCP) and patient education resources for telehealth. Purpose: The AHA conducted a cross-sectional survey at health systems participating in the Center for Telehealth’s Learning Collaboratives. The survey goal was to understand patients’ experience, knowledge, and attitudes about telehealth. The results aimed to inform AHA’s patient and HCP telehealth resource development. Methods: Twelve health systems, located across 9 states, invited their patients to complete a 30-question survey hosted online in Qualtrics. The survey was offered in English and Spanish. Included participants were of consenting age in their state and had hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and/or diabetes. Data was analyzed to produce descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 571 complete survey responses were collected. Most participants were female (68.9%), below 65 years of age (81.9%), and represented various races including Black or African American (32.9%), White (26.3%), and Hispanic or Latino (20.1%). Of those who indicated they had health insurance (81.4%), almost half (43.9%) had Medicare or Medicaid. Most participants had a telehealth visit in the last year (70.1%); their top reasons for choosing telehealth were the convenience of telehealth (40.8%) and to save time associated with traveling (25.0%). Participants identified facilitators for telehealth use: lower telehealth appointment costs and/or co-pays for in-person appointments (36.3%), HCPs requesting prescriptions directly after the visit (24.3%), and access to reliable internet connection (21.5%). Participants selected two top resources that would make them more likely to attend a future telehealth appointment: “Telehealth Appointment Prep Checklist” (45.6%) and guidance on “What to Expect During Your Telehealth Visit” (45.0%). Most participants shared that short videos would be most helpful for them to learn about using telehealth (67.1%). Conclusion: Most participants are likely to attend telehealth appointments in the next year (69.2%). To enhance participants’ experiences, short videos, guidance on telehealth visit expectations, and an appointment prep checklist could be developed.