{"id":"a0149fa7-326c-4838-be26-edcaf7fd1f01","slug":"telemedicine-in-practice-patient-selection-and-strategies-adopted-in-spinal-care-during-the-covid-19-era-and-beyond","title":"Telemedicine in practice: Patient selection and strategies adopted in spinal care during the COVID-19 era and beyond","authors":["Rossella Rispoli","Barbara Cappelletto"],"abstract":"Background: The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a substantial effect on health-care systems around the world. To deal with this challenge, we developed a prospectus design and test a teleconsultation procedure suitable for both diagnostic and therapeutic needs of outpatients in our Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery Units. Methods: (1) The first 15 patients received in-person and telemedicine visits: Our pilot began with screening protocol that involved 15 patients who received an in-person assessment and a telemedicine consult. The 15 patients who were selected were already known to our unit after having had at least one previous in-person visit. Further, they had to be neurologically intact or have a stable neurological examination. The secondary teleconsultation took place as a synchronous face-to-face communication between the doctor and the patient through a video interface (Lifesize Video Conferencing, Austin, Texas). If the patient demonstrated worsening of symptoms or of their condition, they were rescheduled for an immediate/timely in-person revisit with a spinal physician. (2) Fifty patients were offered telemedicine visits alone: 35 accepted: Next, from 2020 to 2021, we provided a questionnaire to 50 patients, we deemed eligible for teleconsultations: 35 agreed to the teleconsultations, while 15 refused (i.e., selecting direct in-person assessments). Results: We found a comparable quality for the clinical consultations/assessments provided in-person versus through telemedicine. Further, the additional 35 patients who were positively impressed with the quality of the medical care provided utilizing the telemedicine/remote visits alone. Conclusion: When pandemic conditions worsen, telemedicine appears to be a viable and important tool/ alternative for spinal surgeons to screen potential patients for treatment/surgery. This preliminary study suggests that a remote examination may be effective, particularly in patients who have previously undergone prior in-person evaluations.","thumbnailUrl":"https://sni-digital-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/a0149fa7-326c-4838-be26-edcaf7fd1f01/featured/hero-1781561033176.png","publishDate":"2022-08-26T00:00:00.000Z","doi":"10.25259/SNI_638_2022","categories":["Spine","Original Article"],"fullTextUrl":"https://surgicalneurologyint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/11828/SNI-13-383.pdf"}