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A new study should reassure anxious people who want to put their contraceptives online online. With the help of secret buyers, the researchers found that many sites and online applications that prescribed contraceptives were generally affordable, fast and safe.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California at Davis have teamed up for this study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. They recruited volunteers to play the role of clients trying to get prescribed and sell oral contraception from one of the nine online providers available in the United States. In total, they made 63 online visits to these vendors, including Planned Parenthood, Nurx, Prykt Ruby, Virtuwell, Lemonaid, The Pill Club, Pandia Health, HeyDoctor and Maven.
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The visits, in which users were asked about the relevant medical history, lasted on average less than eight minutes. The vast majority – 93% – followed the guidelines for the prescription of contraceptives established by the Centers for Disease Control, the researchers found.
Sometimes, for example, the "patient" has revealed a previous disease that can make the use of contraception dangerous or ineffective, such as a blood clot formed in the deep veins of the leg. Almost every time this happened, a prescriber communicated with the patient by text, video and telephone, explaining why he should not receive his prescription (in some cases, he would still be eligible for a less risky contraceptive). Of 45 such visits, only three ended up with a prescription that they probably should not have obtained.
There were also other benefits. Often, prescriptions could be collected at a local pharmacy immediately, and even when the prescription was posted, it usually arrived a week later. Sometimes the seller has accepted health insurance. However, even the average uninsured cost of a year's supply of contraception ($ 313, although it could be $ 67) was slightly lower than what you would expect to pay if you had consulted a doctor in person.
The findings, according to the author of the study, Ateev Mehrotra, show that birth control can be provided easily and safely through telemedicine.
"For most health problems, a visit to the doctor is still essential, but there are some clinical scenarios for which this model seems globally safe and effective," said Mehrotra, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School. a statement published by the school.
Some aspects of these applications could be improved, added Mehrotra and his team.
For example, the reason why these applications comply so well with CDC guidelines is probably because they rely on automated checklists and questionnaires that contain most of the information that can make a person feel comfortable. ineligible for oral contraception. The few times these people were still able to obtain contraceptives involved rare diseases that these checklists were probably not programmed to be identified. This suggests that they can be further refined.
Applications have also never raised the possibility that patients will benefit more from long-term reversible contraception, which would require additional medical consultation, as a result of an in-person visit to the doctor. . And they have never included questions that may exclude people who do not feel able to follow a daily pill-eating regime.
Nevertheless, given that women in many parts of the United States continue to face an increasingly difficult time to afford and obtain birth control, it is good to know that all medical treatments sold online are not a scam.
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