Utility of Video Consultation in Digestive Diseases

Introduction: Despite the rise of video consultation, most consultations in patients with digestive diseases tend to be face-to-face. Objective and Methods: In 2016, gastroenterology video consultation was implemented in the hospital. A prospective and descriptive study of a series of patients attended consecutively by video consultation by a gastroenterology specialist for 50 months. We have analyzed which syndromes and digestive diseases are susceptible to being performed by video consultation. Results: Two hundred fifty patients were selected (100 during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic), 50.4% men and 49.6% women, with a mean age of 48 (SD 18-9) years. The main reason for the consultation of the 142 patients (56.8%) with definitive diagnoses was: dyspepsia, hepatobiliary disease, diarrhea, gastroesophageal reflux, and irritable bowel syndrome. The final diagnosis was dyspepsia (21%), hepatobiliary disease (16%), diarrhea (9%), irritable bowel syndrome (8.4%), intolerances (including gluten intolerance and sensitivity) (8.4%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (7,7%), and inflammatory bowel disease (6.3%). The concordance between the diagnostic impression and the definitive diagnosis was 60%. Conclusions: Video consultation in gastroenterology is an effective alternative to the face-to-face visit, used equally in patients of both sexes, where dyspepsia is the main reason for consultation and diagnosis. During the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of video consultations increased 10 times. The main pathologies diagnosed were dyspepsia and hepatobiliary diseases.