Dear Editor,We read with much interest the recent article on the use of telemedicine appointments for patients with asthma in the United States by Haynes et al. (1) as it relates closely to data we have been collecting from our patients with asthma in England. In Autumn 2021, we sent out a short three-question text-message survey to young patients with asthma and their parents at eight General Practitioner (GP) practices in Northwest London. Questions addressed 1) how confident patients felt in managing their asthma, 2) what made patients want to engage in their asthma care, and 3) what patients and parents would want changed in their asthma care.We received 64 responses (12 patients and 52 parents) and, overwhelmingly, the most common response from patients and parents in the open-text question for improvements they most wanted in their asthma care was for more frequent asthma reviews (29.7), with a further 10.9 specifically asking for more face-to-face appointments. Other responses included wanting more education on asthma and wanting easier access to their GP. This data is to be taken in the context of a pandemic where telemedicine appointments replaced many face-to-face appointments.Gilbert et al. (2) similarly found that, whilst video consultations were well received during the COVID-19 lock-down, outside of the pandemic, face-to-face appointments were preferred more than 50 of the time. Haynes et al. (1) raise important issues as to why patients might prefer face-to-face over telemedicine consultations, including building a therapeutic alliance, receptiveness to information, and engagement in the consultation.
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