Evaluation of a Telehealth Counseling Program for Expatriates.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Health problems for expatriates are common due to their vulnerability to local infectious diseases psychosocial problems and chronic diseases but many problems go largely unmet in this unique population INTRODUCTION Telehealth counseling was developed and tested for Korean expatriates We explored the current status of using telehealth counseling systems and showed its feasibility and acceptability in three countries MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study was based on the Development and demonstration of telehealth counseling program for overseas Koreans project funded by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute In this project we established five Digital Healthcare Centers DHCs 3 in Vietnam and 1 each in Uzbekistan and Cambodia We used data from October 2016 to September 2017 descriptive analysis and one way ANOVA were used to present detailed information RESULTS A total of 442 patients made an appointment for telehealth counseling services Overall user satisfaction rates were 96 1 Over two thirds of patients 302 442 68 3 completed one time telehealth counseling About 13 were referred to primary care and 17 3 8 were referred to specialists or tertiary hospital The most common diagnostic category was endocrine nutritional and metabolic diseases 14 followed by diseases of the circulatory system 12 3 for one time visit patients DISCUSSION Our telehealth counseling program for expatriates was feasible and acceptable in three countries It also has the potential to minimize language barriers and the cost of healthcare usage CONCLUSION Further research for sustainable effective telehealth systems for expatriates will be needed