This learning brief draws on findings derived from several publicly available peer-reviewed articles. For further details, please refer to the end of the brief. Prior to the onset of COVID-19, virtual primary care – a broad term describing the use of phone or digital technologies to enable primary care activities – was largely a nascent technology. While slowly increasing in availability over the years, virtual primary care had remained a complementary or alternative means to face-to-face consultations.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that as it presented health systems
worldwide with a set of unprecedented challenges. Virtual approaches rapidly became the mainstay modality for health care delivery during the early phases of the pandemic, supporting continuity of care, facilitating public health interventions and disease surveillance, and curbing disease transmission in the community.
This abrupt and rapid adoption of virtual primary care has had significant
implications on the care received by patients, the health provider’s routine
clinical practice, and has pushed health systems towards greater incorporation of virtual primary care as an important means of care delivery, moving on from the pandemic.
This briefing aims to summarize the key findings from the experiences of primary care physicians using virtual care tools. Using an online survey, we explored the perspectives of general practitioners working during the COVID-19 pandemic (June-September 2020) across 20 countries, and invited them to share their views on the main barriers and challenges of using virtual care