#256 : Reproductive Outcomes and Satisfaction Among Patients Using Telemedicine During Assisted Reproduction: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background and Aims: Telemedicine refers to the delivery of healthcare services through the use of information and communication technology, across distances. There has been a significant increase in the demand for infertility treatment and virtual consultations from home after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, due to a lack of sufficient data, and concerns about patient compliance, telemedicine has struggled to gain widespread acceptance. Our aim was to compare the success of treatment between telemedicine and in-office care during assisted reproduction treatment. Additionally, we evaluated patient satisfaction with telemedicine. Method: We conducted a literature search of published articles in the PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases up to November 30, 2022. We used the keywords “telemedicine” or “telehealth” and “in vitro fertilization” or “assisted reproduction”. Both randomized controlled trials and observational studies were included in the search. We registered our protocol on PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42022379428). Results: We identified 14 studies that reported data on 5182 patients. Quality assessment revealed an acceptable risk of bias for both randomized controlled trials and observational studies. The data showed that telemedicine was non-inferior to in-person care in terms of pregnancy rate achieved (OR 1.02, 95% CI: 0.83–1.25, p = 0.84). The Q test p-value of 0.99 and I2 statistic of 0% indicated that all the included studies were homogeneous. Patients who received telemedicine follow-ups during fertility treatment reported adequate satisfaction (88%, 95% CI: 77%-94%). Eggers’ test did not indicate the presence of Deek’s funnel plot asymmetry (p = 0.62), confirming that no publication bias was found. Conclusion: Telemedicine use has resulted in a comparable treatment success rate in terms of pregnancy rate, when compared to face-to-face consultation. These emerging tools also yielded a high level of patient satisfaction.