Abstract
The nutritional assessment, feeding evaluation, and treatment of chronically ill children with feeding disorders is traditionally performed in major medical tertiary care centers. In Texas, chronically ill children from remote areas travel long distances for specialized nutritional and feeding assessments, treatment, and follow-up. Care providers in rural areas lack skills to provide treatment without distant professionals to care for patients. The Pediatric Rehabilitation Telemedicine Project is a collaborative effort among the major medical centers and the nursing schools at two distant sites. The project allows the Pediatric Rehabilitation team (which includes a doctor, nurse practitioner, dietitian, speech pathologist, occupational and physical therapists) to provide a comprehensive evaluation, assessment and treatment of feeding disorders affecting nutritional status. Through Telemedicine, the feeding team can get a history of feeding, 24 hour food recall, changes in height and weight, sequence of feeding, and can view the actual stages of feeding and positioning during feedings. The feeding team can make recommendations affecting changes in texture, in nutritional status, involving changes in foods or formula, give oral motor exercises, and follow transition changes in developmental feeding. The present results being evaluated by use of questionnaire are given as (1) reduced cost to family, (2) reduced travel time, (3) closer intervention by specialized feeding team, and (4) increased involvement of local health care providers. Through Telemedicine, the Pediatric Rehabilitation feeding team can participate in assessment and treatment evaluation for patients at remote sites, saving patients the time and expense of traveling to major urban medical centers, while educating health care providers in remote areas.
Published Version
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