The concept of telemedicine in pediatric rheumatology in Tunisia: Parents' perceptions.
Yasmine Makhlouf, Dorra Ben Nessib, Hanene Ferjani and 4 others
PMID 36584592WHAT IT FOUND
Tunisian parents of children with rheumatic disease were largely unwilling to use telemedicine: only 32.5% would accept it.
Parents living away from the hospital were less willing. Main concerns were missing the physical exam and the disease being trivialized.
Key findings
01Only 22.5% of parents were aware of telemedicine and 32.5% would accept it as a model of care.
02Parents who lived away from the hospital were less willing to adopt telemedicine: 7.7% preferred telemedicine versus 52% live consultation (p = 0.012).
03The main reasons for preferring live consultation were discrepancy between physical and distant evaluation (47.5%) and fear of trivializing the disease (38.5%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was small: 40 parents, all from one pediatric rheumatology department, so it reflects families who had already attended that service. It measured stated willingness and reasons, not actual telemedicine use, clinical outcomes, or whether virtual visits worked. The survey happened during the pandemic (June and July 2021), so pandemic-specific concerns may have shaped answers. Doctors' perceptions were not studied, so it does not show whether clinicians could support telemedicine.
Declared interests
No funding was declared, and all authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that telemedicine fails or that distance causes lower willingness. It is a survey of 40 parents' stated preferences at one department, not a trial of care outcomes, and the sample was limited to families who had already visited that service.