Telemedicine is tough for Russians – Newspaper Kommersant No. 12 (7457) of 01/24/2023

The most sought-after specialists for remote patient consultations in 2022 were therapists, pediatricians, psychologists, gynecologists and dermatologists. This conclusion was made by the experts of the SberHealth online service. At the same time, if therapists are traditional long-term leaders of telemedicine, then back in 2021 there were no psychologists in the top ten at all. In addition, the frequency of online appeals of Russians to dentists and oncologists has increased. As for full-time appointments, the largest increase in appointments in 2022 was recorded for doctors of rare specialties: a physiotherapist (145% increase in interest), a phoniatrist (93%) and an immunologist (92%).

The SberHealth online service, after analyzing anonymized and summarized data from telemedicine consultations and online appointments of patients for face-to-face appointments, found that last year Russians most often consulted online with therapists, pediatricians, psychologists, gynecologists and dermatologists. The top ten also included a neurologist, a gastroenterologist, an endocrinologist, an ENT specialist and a cardiologist. It is noteworthy that in 2021, there was no psychologist in the top specialists in terms of the frequency of online calls, but there were a urologist and a cardiologist.

The largest dynamics of growth in online consultations in 2022 compared to 2021 is observed in dentists: patients communicated with a specialist online five times more often than a year earlier. The authors of the analysis specify that the popularity of such consultations is due to the desire of people to “save on face-to-face appointments”. Remote access to dentists is mainly for a second opinion, additional recommendations on the urgency of treatment, as well as decoding and evaluation of images.

The number of online visits to oncologists has tripled in a year. The main increase was due to the penetration of telemedicine in regions where the availability of doctors of narrow specialties is lower than in the capital, analysts believe. They emphasize that oncological diseases require not only highly qualified treatment and a quick response, but also a comprehensive assessment of the case from different angles. Therefore, many patients turn to several oncologists, both online and offline, to make sure that the diagnosis or the prescribed treatment is correct.

The services of psychologists became the third in terms of growth dynamics for the year – the number of online requests to these specialists increased by 67%. The driver of growth, in addition to the general attention to mental health, according to SberHealth, was the focus of business on the psychological state of employees: more than 60% of consultations with psychologists on the service fell on corporate clients.

For face-to-face appointments in Russian private clinics in 2022, the most frequent appointments were with a gynecologist, a neurologist, an ENT specialist, a dermatologist, and a general practitioner. Compared to last year, the therapist dropped from third place to fifth, and the pediatrician did not even enter the top ten. “Russians are gradually getting used to receiving the first recommendations on general health issues online, and signing up for face-to-face appointments with highly specialized doctors already with recommendations received from therapists and pediatricians during a remote consultation,” the authors of the analysis clarify.

The top ten appointments for face-to-face appointments also included a urologist, a gastroenterologist, an ophthalmologist, an endocrinologist, and a cardiologist. The largest increase in appointments for face-to-face appointments in 2022 was recorded for doctors of rare specialties: a physiotherapist (145% increase in interest), a phoniatrist (treats diseases associated with the vocal cords; 93%) and an immunologist (92%).

Ekaterina Kuzina, medical director of the Doctor Nearby medical company, says that their top specialties that clients used for telemedicine consultations practically coincide with the SberHealth data. Ms. Kuzina also notes the growing demand for psychologists: “Although psychologists were in the top 10 specialties on the Doctor Nearby platform in 2021, in 2022 the number of their consultations doubled, and they firmly took the second position in our list.”

Earlier, “Kommersant” talked about a joint study of the online school of psychological professions “Psychodemia”, the service for selecting psychologists Alter and the HeadHunter resource, according to which in 2022 the need for psychologists increased in Russia by 62.87% compared to last year. The authors also noted a significant — by 62% — increase in the number of sessions with specialists of this profile, as well as a several-fold increase in the demand for corporate psychological assistance. Experts explained such indicators both by political events and by the natural growth of the market. “On the one hand, we are seeing an increased demand for the services of psychologists, on the other hand, part of the population has decreased solvency, which is more likely to reorient the market towards affordable methods of assistance,” said Maria Danina, co-founder of Psychodemia.

Ekaterina Kuzina adds that Doctor Nearby also notes an increase in scheduled consultations with general practitioners due to the presence of a large number of complications in patients after suffering COVID-19. For the same reason, cardiologists entered the top 10 of this company in 2022. “But despite the increase in the popularity of telemedicine in the country, the wide infrastructure of providers built and the loyalty of customers to this service after the pandemic, the legal field has remained unchanged since 2018 and hinders its development,” says Ms. Kuzina.

Telemedicine is a promising area of ​​modern medicine, since it allows you to solve several serious problems at once, agrees Yuri Zhulev, co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Patients. Among them are reducing the burden on medical institutions, increasing the availability of narrow specialists for the regions, and remote monitoring of patients. “However, the telemedicine service is now mainly used in the doctor-doctor interaction format, and only in private medicine has it become widespread as a doctor-patient,” says Mr. Zhulev. He believes that the expansion of the use of telemedicine is possible subject to the further development of the legislative framework, as well as the elaboration of the regulations for the provision of services, the rights and obligations of patients and doctors.

Natalya Kostarnova