• Bhaskar Roy, Richard J Nowak, Ricardo Roda, Babar Khokhar, Huned S Patwa, Thomas Lloyd, and Seward B Rutkove.
• Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 15 York Street, LCI 9, P.O. Box 208108, New Haven 06519, CT, USA. Electronic address: bhaskar.roy@yale.edu.
• J. Neurol. Sci. 2020 Jul 15; 414: 116930.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic mandated rapid transition from face-to-face encounters to teleneurology visits. While teleneurology is regularly used in acute stroke care, its application in other branches of neurology was limited. Here we review how the recent pandemic has created a paradigm shift in caring for patients with chronic neurological disorders and how academic institutions have responded to the present need.MethodLiterature review was performed to examine the recent changes in health policies. Number of outpatient visits and televisits in the Department of Neurology was reviewed from Yale University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to examine the road to transition to televisit.ResultsThe federal government and the insurance providers extended their supports during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several rules and regulations regarding teleneurology were revised and relaxed to address the current need. New technologies for video conferencing were incorporated. The transition to televisits went smoothly in both the institutions and number of face-to-face encounters decreased dramatically along with a rapid rise in televisits within 2 weeks of the declaration of national emergency.Conclusion And RelevanceThe need for "social distancing" during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a major surge in the number of teleneurology visits, which will probably continue for the next few months. It may have initiated a more permanent transition to virtual technology incorporated medical care.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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