key: cord-0982304-2w9i40ku authors: Villa, Alessandro; Sankar, Vidya; Shazib, Muhammad Ali; Ramos, Daniel; Veluppillai, Piri; Wu, Ava; Shiboski, Caroline title: Patient and providers' satisfaction with tele(oral)medicine during the COVID‐19 pandemic date: 2020-10-28 journal: Oral Dis DOI: 10.1111/odi.13678 sha: ec4611c17875d892eeb8d4d284ddf75407edd5aa doc_id: 982304 cord_uid: 2w9i40ku nan In addition to the unprecedented high death toll and the devastating economic impact, the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has also caused great disruption to nearly 200,000 dental providers in the United States (Eklund & Bailit, 2017; Munson & Vujicic, 2018) . The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is present in respiratory secretions and saliva of infected patients and is spread through respiratory large droplets (Bahl et al., 2020; Tay et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2020) . Because of aerosol-generating procedures in oral healthcare settings and close person-to-person contact, dental providers, auxiliaries and their patients are at high risk of infection ("The New York Times (New York) March, 2020"). Due to these concerns, all routine dental services were suspended for more than two months (American Dental Association, 2020). Telehealth offers providers the opportunity to provide continuity of care, triage patient's concerns and relieve patient's anxiety regarding oral/mucosal issues. Patient care can be delivered in a timely and safe manner allowing for evaluation of oral mucosal disorders, and to address pain, some forms of minor bleeding, swelling and other postoperative complications that may not necessarily require a face-to-face consultation thus reducing the risk of potential exposure to COVID-19. In response to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, several oral medicine practices in North America established tele(oral)medicine services to provide virtual patient care and continuity of clinical education for dental and oral medicine trainees (Villa et al., 2020) . Telemedicine has been widely adopted by the medical profession for more than four years (Bashshur & Armstrong, 1976; Conrath et al., 1977; Muller et al., 1977) and has been well received by both patients and providers (Hollander & Sites, 2020) . Telehealth visits in the medical field have increased rapidly since the recent COVID-19 outbreak began, yet telehealth in the oral medicine/dental community has not to our knowledge been widely utilized. The aim of this multicenter cross-sectional study was to assess patient and provider's satisfaction, experiences, acceptance and engagement in using tele(oral)medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic with the hope to provide helpful information to other colleagues who are looking to implement future tele(oral)medicine programs. This study was conducted at three oral medicine centers in the United States that started tele(oral)medicine since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and oral medicine providers were invited to complete an anonymous survey at the end of each video visit. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tufts University, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill. A modified version of a previously validated survey was administered to providers that transitioned in-person visits to tele(oral) medicine visits (Glaser et al., 2010) . Briefly, the survey queried on overall satisfaction with the video visit, comfort level with the video technology (quality of the video and sound) and willingness to use telemedicine in the future. Patients who underwent video appointments via Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc.) and or WebEx answered survey questions via Qualtrics (UCSF and UNC) or on paper (Tufts) at the end of each encounter. Patient experience was measured in multiple items. Sociodemographic characteristics including gender, age, and type of insurance were collected as well. A total of 100 patients (23.5%; 100/425) responded to the survey from April 1st to July 30, 2020 ( they had seen the specialist in person ("strongly agree": 7.7%). Nine oral medicine specialists responded to the survey for a total of 108 visits. Full details and responses are reported in Table 3 . Providers thought that tele(oral)medicine improved patient access to oral medicine services in 82.3% of cases and "agreed" or "completely agreed" that telehealth was an adequate replacement for their pa- "very satisfied" with the tele(oral)medicine outcome in 31.7% and 37.6% of the cases, respectively. Thirty percent of the patients required a biopsy after the video consultation. The COVID-19 pandemic caused great disruption to the dental community and is shaping how we will deliver care for the years to come. Our study showed that tele(oral)medicine was well received among patients and providers. As oral medicine practices gradually return to in-person patient visits, telemedicine still remains a safe and effective option for patients with certain oral mucosal or pain disorders. Tele(oral)medicine has shown to be a convenient and effective healthcare delivery technology for those individuals that have limited access to care from oral medicine specialists. None to declare. The peer review history for this article is available at https://publo ns.com/publo n/10.1111/odi.13678. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1966-6000 Caroline Shiboski https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2289-3781 COVID-19 state mandates and recommendations: ADA Center for Professional Success Airborne or droplet precautions for health workers treating COVID-19? Telemedicine: A new mode for the delivery of health care A clinical evaluation of four alternative telemedicine systems Estimating the number of dentists needed in 2040 Provider satisfaction and patient outcomes associated with a statewide prison telemedicine program in Louisiana The transition from reimagining to recreating health care is now. NEJM Catalyst Cost factors in urban telemedicine Supply of full-time equivalent dentists in the U.S. expected to increase steadily The workers who face the greatest coronavirus risk. The New York Times Tele(oral)medicine: A new approach during the COVID-19 crisis Saliva: Potential diagnostic value and transmission of 2019-nCoV