Web-based asynchronous teleconsulting for consumers in Colombia: a 2-year follow up.

Background: Remote consultation was implemented in 2006 in our institution, through an open-access Web-based Tele-consulting service: Doctor Chat. This tool was created with the aim of improving access to health care services in Colombia, especially in underserved areas. Objective: The aim of this paper is to report our experience with the free Web-based application for teleconsultation. Methods: After validating the tool, we analyzed the queries submitted between May 2007 and June 2009. Requests were classified into three axes: purpose of the query, specialty, and geographic area of origin. Descriptive statistics were gathered for each category (name, email, city, country, age, gender). Results: We received 1624 consultations, with an average of 59 requests per month. 52.7% of the users were aged 18 to 29 years. Users asked mainly about sexual and reproductive health issues. 79.2% of consultations came from Colombia and 32.91% of the users were students. Conclusions: Doctor Chat is an innovative tool to deliver health care information, but advertising, preventive and technical strategies must be implemented to improve its impact on Coiombia's health system.