Telemedicine Consultation for Patients with Upper Extremity Disorders Is Reliable

Abstract

Telemedicine is a valuable resource for the delivery of health care to patients in underserved areas. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of asynchronous teleconsultation in the diagnosis and establishment of treatment plans for patients with disorders of the upper extremity. One hundred patients with disorders of the upper extremity were prospectively evaluated. Initial patient evaluations, done by an independent evaluator, involved a medical history, physical examination, digital images of the patient, and digitized radiographic studies. This patient information was presented electronically to two hand surgeons 6 months after one surgeon independently evaluated the patients in the outpatient clinic. The physicians formulated diagnosis and treatment plans for the patients based on the blinded electronic information. These findings then were compared with the treatment plans made by the physicians at the time of the patients' visits. Telemedicine consultation resulted in excellent agreement within observers (kappa = .92) and between observers (kappa = .86). Telemedicine consultation seems to be a reliable method for diagnosis and establishment of treatment plans in the management of upper extremity disorders. Diagnostic study, Level I-1 (testing of previously developed diagnostic criteria in series of consecutive patients--with universally applied reference gold standard). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.