Telehealth For Male-Infertility Is Feasible And Saves Patients' Time And Money.

Objective: There has been a rapid expansion of video visits, a form of telehealth, with the COVID-19 pandemic;however, little is known about the feasibility or benefits of video visits for patients seeking male infertility care Herein we summarize a single institution’s experience using video visits to manage infertility prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Specifically, we evaluate the number of patients engaging in video visits for the first time, and the patient resources saved by forgoing in-person appointments Design: Retrospective case series of patients undergoing video visits for follow-up of male-infertility care Materials and Methods: We identified all video visits performed at our institution between August 21, 2017 and March 17, 2020 We included men seen for male infertility by a single urologist We used chart review to collect patient demographic information including age, primary language, race, and occupation Patients were identified as blue collar versus white collar workers with respect to their engagement in manual labor We determined whether patients had a prior video visit completed at our institution We used Google MapsTM to calculate round-trip driving distance and time saved based on patients’ city of residence Driving costs saved were calculated by using American Automobile Association’s cost estimate of \u003esource 59/mile Finally, salaries were used to estimate wages lost if taking a half or full day off to attend an in-person clinic visit Results: 70 male infertility video visits were completed by 56 patients Median age of patients was 36 years old (range 20-56), 96% identified preferred language as English, and 78% self-identified as white There were a total of 49 unique occupations among the 56 men 32% were blue collar workers and 68% were white collar workers For 55 of 56 patients, this study period represented their first use of video visits in our health system Video visits allowed patients to save a median of 80 miles (interquartile range 46-244) and 97 minutes (IQR 64-250) of travel per visit This resulted in a median of $47 (IQR 27–144) of driving costs saved per visit By not having to miss a half or full day of work, patients potentially avoided a median of $102 (IQR $69 – 133) to $205 (IQR $137 – 266) in lost wages, respectively Total median savings per patient ranged from $149 (half day off) to $252 (full day off) Median salary of our cohort was $51,331 In total, 70 video visits saved 56 patients 11,646 miles and 12,070 minutes in travel Total estimated savings to patients was $14,539 (half day off) to $22,206 (full day off) Conclusions: Video visits are a feasible option for follow-up infertility care and are a patient-centric modality that reduces travel and financial burdens 98% of patients were first-time video visit users suggesting that men are amenable to using video visits for male infertility care Calculated cost savings may have underestimated total expenses as we did not account for meals, parking fees and other expenses incurred by traveling for an in-person appointment