Hispanic parental perceptions about telemedicine: Potential targets for interventions to improve access to care

Introduction One benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the growth and expansion of telemedicine capabilities with the potential to improve access to healthcare in the face of social isolation mandates. However, adoption of telemedicine has been suboptimal in the Hispanic community and data has been sparse regarding Hispanic experiences with and opinions regarding telemedicine. Methods To gather feedback regarding telemedicine and to identify potential barriers to telemedicine use in the Hispanic community, we performed semi-structured interviews about telemedicine experiences among both Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents who had performed both in-person and at least one telemedicine visit for their child at our institution. Mixed methods were utilized to analyze interview responses. Results and Discussion Overall, Hispanic parents overwhelmingly preferred in-person to telemedicine encounters as compared with non-Hispanic parents. Targets were identified to improve the use of telemedicine and to potentially improve access to healthcare in the Hispanic community.