Teleconsultation: 6% of uses for psychiatrists and psychologists

The Medaviz platform, a Breton teleconsultation company, offers an overview of the use of consultation and telecare for the year 2022. If general practitioners are still very widely solicited in this area by patients with nearly 50% of teleconsultations, psychiatrists and psychologists come in third position with 6% of uses.

Acclaimed by healthcare professionals and patients during the pandemic, the practice of remote medical acts is gradually becoming part of the care pathway. According to the analysis of the Breton teleconsultation company Medaviz conducted among the 10,000 health professionals who use the platform, as in 2021, the use of telehealth tools is still favored by practitioners between 35-44 years old.

Psychologists and psychiatrists in 3rd position for uses…

General practitioners remain at the top of uses for the third consecutive year, with however a decline of 2 points in practice. Anesthesiologists still occupy second place and surgeons are replaced by psychologists and psychiatrists in third place, who go from 5.3% (in 2021) to 5.9% of use. Midwives have doubled their use of teleconsultation between 2021 and 2022.

The figures remain stable and demonstrate the integration of e-health tools in the care offered by practitioners. 62% of users follow more than 10 patients in teleconsultation or telecare and 1/3 of healthcare professionals follow more than 50 patients remotely.

30-54 year olds represent 50% of patients

Women remain the main beneficiaries of teleconsultation and telecare, with 63% of uses. It is mainly the generation of 30-54 year olds who use telehealth and represent 50% of users. Declining since 2020, the share of teleconsultations for those under 15 is halved and represents only 4.3% in 2022. As for teleconsultation among patients over 70, it is rare (5%).

In their vast majority, 8 out of 10 cases, patients only have one teleconsultation per year. Only 6% of patients benefited from at least 4 appointments in this form. It seems that the regular follow-up of chronic patients “via this “remote” use is still far from entering into habits.

As in 2021, remote procedures are mainly carried out at the start of the week (43.5% on Mondays and Tuesdays), aligned with office hours, and mainly for patients who have not been able to reach a practitioner over the weekend.

An appointment of 24 minutes on average for psychologists and psychiatrists

As in 2020 and 2021, teleconsultations carried out by psychologists and psychiatrists can
last up to three times longer than remote procedures for other specialties, ie 24 minutes on average. Their acts are invoiced at 59 €.

Finally, three quarters of the documents exchanged via secure telehealth tools come from the professionals themselves, with an increase in the number of prescriptions and examination results over one year.

• Teleconsultation and telecare – Study on practices in 2022, Medaviz, 31 January 2023.