Subspecialty teleneurology: feasible and highly valued

Using subspecialty teleneurology services was feasible and received high patient ratings in a study performed at the Cleveland Clinic (Ohio, USA).

Dr Lindsey Ross described the implementation and 4 years of patient experience with outpatient subspecialty teleneurology visits at her academic institution [1]. “Virtual visits have the potential to improve patient access to neurological subspecialty care which otherwise often requires travel”, she said. Some of the advantages she mentioned were saving travel time, facilitation of long-distance follow-up, better compliance, continuous monitoring, and seeing the patient in his own environment.

In the study, virtual visits were conducted by personal smartphone or computer via videoconferencing with a provider. In 4 years, 3,958 patients completed 5,646 virtual visits. There was a broad applicability across subspecialties. Most visits concerned headache (21.4%), epilepsy (19.1%), spine (15.7%), and movement (10.8%). Virtual visits were utilised across a wide range of distances from the hospital: 29.8% were local (<50 miles), 25.9% near regional (50-150 miles), 21.6% far regional (151-270 miles), and 23.1% remote (>270 miles). On average, patients rated the virtual visit 4.7 and their provider 4.9 on a 5-point scale.

1. Ross L, et al. AAN 2019, plen01.004.



Posted on 30 July, 20198 February, 2024