Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Telehealth: Analysis of Tweets from Pre- and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Published in: Communications in Computer and Information Science
• Main Author: Larson S.; Popov V.; Ali A.M.; Ramanathan P.; Jung S.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2021
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85101411035&doi=10.1007%2f978-3-030-67788-6_27&partnerID=40&md5=80bc0e6a4697765354b7f5876d394a8f

Telehealth has the potential to improve patient access to professional healthcare. In this paper we examine the publicly held perceptions of healthcare professionals on Twitter regarding telehealth platforms pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sentiment analysis and Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) were used to investigate whether there were changes in the perceptions and opinions of telehealth expressed on Twitter by healthcare professionals between the time period of January to April 2019 and January to May 2020, during the initial medical system response to COVID-19. Findings suggest that professionals’ perceptions shifted from telehealth as innovation during COVID-19 to focus on the pervasive need for safe access and delivery to care. Overall, sentiment on telehealth was found to be positive, with advances made in payment for telehealth care delivery and the easing of some of the restrictions on telehealth practice in 2020, though concerns on access to care through telehealth platforms remain prevalent. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.