Assessment of video in general practice

The pilot project was carried out by MedCom, the Practitioners' Organisation (PLO) and the five regions in 2019 with the aim of testing video in general and specialist practice for consultations with patients and conferences with partners. A total of 47 general and 5 specialist medical practices have participated in the pilot project. During the pilot period (8 months), a total of 517 video consultations and conferences were carried out across 40 active medical practices. The remaining 12 practices had too many technical problems to carry out video consultations.

The overall conclusion of the assessment is that the general practitioners will not currently recommend video consultations, it will require a more well-functioning video solution than the one tested in the project.

In addition, the evaluation presents the following:

• It is a prerequisite for a good video call that patient and doctor know each other in advance and have developed a relationship.
• Video consultations are unsuitable for diseases that require objective examination, patients who need measurements or samples and patients with very complex problems or who are not cognitively functioning well.
• Lack of closeness and contact with the patient did not pose a problem in the cases where video consultations were successful.
• The doctors disagree about the time consumption of video consultation, as some believe they use more time, some experience the same time consumption, while others believe that video consultation can save time.

In general, both doctors and patients want the option of using video consultation, but the technology must work and be easier to use before it becomes common practice. The project has been characterised by delays and technical challenges, and the doctors have had less time to test the video than planned. Therefore, the number of video consultations and conferences is lower than expected, and the doctors' experience is thus limited. But the project has not been in vain, says project manager for the assessment Anne Mette Ølholm to Dagens Medicin:

"We can use the results to find out exactly what we need to investigate in more detail in future projects. It will be central to investigate the quality and patient safety more closely, so that we can ensure that the digital form of consultation is not a worse offer than the regular consultation," she says.

Since the pilot project was carried out, Denmark has been hit by covid-19, which has led to the rapid implementation of video consultations at many medical practices, and many doctors have therefore gained more experience with the technique. Anne Mette Ølholm concludes:

"The funding for our pilot project was small, so I hope that the corona outbreak means that more companies, institutions and research institutes invest more money in researching the area, so that we can become clearer about to whom and how video is suitable."