Journal of telemedicine and telecare
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A systematic review designed to evaluate the benefits of remote group pain management for persons with chronic pain was performed. ⋯ Preliminary findings suggest that teletherapy and remote online cognitive behavioural therapy strategies can be effective in improving quality of life among persons with chronic pain, although the overall quality of evidence is moderate. Controlled trials are needed to assess live remote teletherapy for chronic pain.
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The emergence of COVID-19 and its ensuing restrictions on in-person healthcare has resulted in a sudden shift towards the utilization of telemedicine. The purpose of this study is to assess patient satisfaction and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for individuals who underwent follow-up for shoulder surgery using telemedicine compared to those who received traditional in-person clinic follow-up. ⋯ In a cohort of patients who underwent telemedicine follow-up for shoulder surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no difference in patient satisfaction and PROMs compared to traditional in-person clinic follow-up. This study indicates that while the majority of participants preferred face-to-face visits, patients were relatively satisfied with their care and had similar functional outcome scores in both groups, despite the large disruption in healthcare logistics caused by COVID-19.
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Access to paediatric neurology care is complex, resulting in significant wait times and negative patient outcomes. The goal of the American Academy of Pediatrics National Coordinating Center for Epilepsy's project, Access Improvement and Management of Epilepsy with Telehealth (AIM-ET), was to identify access and management challenges in the deployment of telehealth technology. AIM-ET organised four paediatric neurology teams to partner with primary-care providers (PCP) and their multidisciplinary teams. ⋯ Focus groups indicated developing and maintaining partnerships, institutional infrastructure and education as facilitators and barriers to telehealth. Telehealth shortened travelling distance, reduced expenses and time missed from school and work. Further, it provides significant opportunity in an era when coronavirus disease 2019 limits in-person clinics.
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Triage by on-demand telemedicine is a strategy for healthcare surge control in the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the impact of a large-scale COVID-19 telemedicine system on emergency department (ED) visits and all-cause and cardiovascular hospital admissions in Brazil. ⋯ Telemedicine resulted in low rates of ED visits and hospital admissions, suggesting positive impacts on healthcare utilization. Cardiovascular admissions were remarkably rare.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread to nearly every continent, with over 2.6 m cases confirmed worldwide. Emergency departments care for a significant number of patients who are under investigation for COVID-19 or are COVID-19-positive. When patients present in the emergency department, there is an increased risk of spreading the virus to other patients and staff. ⋯ In this article, we describe how we rapidly implemented our emergency department telehealth program, used for 880 min of contact time and 523 patient encounters in a 30-day period, which decreased exposure to COVID-19 and conserved personal protective equipment. We share our challenges, successes and recommendations for designing an emergency department telehealth program, building the technological aspects, and deploying telehealth devices in the emergency department environment. Our recommendations can be adopted by other emergency departments to create and run their own emergency department telehealth initiatives.