Background: As millions of Americans are learning to embrace changes associated with coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic it has become evident that current health care delivery has limitations For many patients their only access to healthcare is an office visit. This structure contributes to the spread of the virus to uninfected patients who are seeking medical attention. It is critical that we do not refer patients to ED, urgent care centers, or physician offices without proper evaluation in an effort to reduce the risk of exposure of other patients or providers. To provide an effective alternative we need to focus on digital technology such as telemedicine which has been around for decades but underutilized. Heavy regulations for data protection and inadequate payment structure have prevented widespread telemedicine use. While we prepare for a COVID-19 surge expanding digital technology will allow physicians to safely improve health care delivery.

Study Design: We designed a telemedicine survey and distributed it among attending physicians, resident physicians, and patients at our hospital to get a baseline understanding of their knowledge or awareness of telemedicine.

Subject Selection: For part one and two, the subject population was attending physicians and resident physicians at Citrus Memorial Hospital. For part three, the subject population was the patients of Citrus Internal Medicine Associates (IM residency outpatient clinic).

Three separate surveys were used in the study:
Part one and two (for Physicians and Residents) an anonymous survey was distributed via email to the attending physicians and resident physicians at Citrus Memorial Hospital (Inverness, FL).
Part three (for patients) an anonymous survey was distributed in the waiting room at Citrus Internal Medicine Associates (Inverness, FL) (Citrus Memorial Hospital IM residency outpatient clinic). This was an optional survey offered to patients at our outpatient clinic after they checked in for their appointment and were waiting to be taken to their examination room.

Results: See graphs attached below.
Table 1
Table 2

Conclusion: Patients reported little to no exposure with telemedicine prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Majority of the physicians (residents and attendings) have no prior experience or training with telemedicine even during residency prior to COVID-19. Physicians felt comfortable prescribing refills or new medications following a tele-medicine visit. The preferred method of communication between patients and physicians is video conferencing. Tele-medicine was underutilized prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but the comfort level is growing among physicians and patients, based on results a direct correlation exists between physician experience and comfort level with tele-medicine. The survey results show that resident physicians, attending physicians, and patients believe there is a role for tele-medicine in patient care moving forward.