Telemedicine in Swedish primary health care - a web-based survey exploring patient satisfaction.

Background: Direct-to-consumer telemedicine (TM), with patients having access to a physician via video or text chat, has gradually been introduced into Swedish primary care during the last two decades. Earlier studies have concluded that patients were generally satisfied with TM and the satisfaction rate was consistently above 80% and comparable with in-person visits. Despite the number of studies looking at user experience, studies assessing what factors influence patient satisfaction are lacking.

Telomerase activity analyzed with TRAP in situ provides additional information in effusions remaining equivocal after immunocytochemistry and hyaluronan analysis.

Cytology is central in the diagnosis of malignancy in effusions. Ancillary techniques, mainly immunocytochemistry, have considerably improved the sensitivity but some 10% of all cases remain equivocal and require the addition of new diagnostic modalities. We have previously shown that strong nuclear telomerase activity determined with Telomere Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) in situ is specific for malignant cells and could be a candidate for an additional test.