Antibiotic stewardship in direct-to-consumer telemedicine consultations lead to high adherence to best practice guidelines and a low prescription rate

Adult patients who accessed a single direct-to-consumer telemedicine center (Jan/2019-Feb/2020) were retrospectively enrolled. Diseases amenable to antimicrobial treatment were classified under five diagnostic groups: upper respiratory tract infection (URI), acute pharyngotonsillitis (PT), acute sinusitis (AS), urinary tract infection (UTI), and acute diarrhea (AD). Physicians were trained on and advised to follow strictly the current guidelines recommendations supported by institutional antibiotic stewardship protocols, readily available online during consultations. We analyzed the antibiotic prescription rate among patients, referral rate, and antibiotic class through descriptive statistics.

Low prescription rate of antibiotics can be achieved using antibiotic stewardship protocols at direct-to-consumer telemedicine consultations, showing high adherence to international guidelines. These results reinforce telemedicine as a cost-effective and safe strategy for the initial assessment of acute non-urgent symptoms.