Patient and provider attitudes toward video and phone telemental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.

Objective: This review synthesizes findings from studies reporting on patient and provider attitudes toward telemental health care conducted via both video and phone. It is informed by the Technology Acceptance Model, in that it reports on patient and provider ratings of the effectiveness of video and phone care, ease of use, overall satisfaction with the modalities, and future modality preference.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted of the English-language, peer-reviewed literature published between 2013 and 2023 within PubMed, Embase, ProQuest Psychology Database, and PsycInfo. 181 studies met full-text review criteria and 24 studies were ultimately included.

Results: Findings were mixed, such that some studies reported similar attitudes toward video and phone care, some favored video care, and relatively few studies favored phone. When considering provider and patient findings separately, providers more strongly favored video over phone with regard to effectiveness, overall satisfaction, and preference for future use. Studies of patients varied between favoring video and reporting nonsignificant differences between the two modalities. Patients tended to prefer the modality they were currently using. Both patients and providers rated video as more complex than phone in several studies.

Discussion: Providers rated video more positively than phone across the majority of included domains, while patient attitudes were more variable. Findings must be interpreted with caution as there is a risk of selection bias across all studies. Future reviews of qualitative studies will be important to provide a more nuanced understanding of patient and provider attitudes toward video and phone telemental health care.