Following on from Maimie Thompson’s post about independent research into Scotland’s approach to expanding Video consultations; delighted to see J Med Internet Res published have published my letter response to this article as a preprint (pending peer review). http://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.34702

Probably of most interest to this group is that in the socio-economically deprived urban area where I work in Scotland a recent audit showed that only around half of the patients opted for a video consultation (46%, n=67) if offered instead of a telephone consultation. Furthermore, of those that requested a video consultation a large proportion were unsuccessful (45%,n=31).

Am hopeful the Consult Now feature on Near Me will reduce the failure rate.