Telemedicine in neurology: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

ObjectiveOur aim is to explore the common challenges encountered by neurologists in telemedicine.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study via an anonymous survey to explore neurologists’ experiences with telemedicine. A survey was sent to randomly selected 200 participants from academic institutions in the United States. We performed descriptive statistics, reported as percentages for each survey question.ResultsOne hunderd and ten neurologists completed the survey. Fifty-one percent of neurologists stated that they experienced technological issues in (1%–20%) of telemedicine visits and 57% needed technical assistance from informational technology ( support. Thirty-four percent of neurologists agree that the inability to perform physical examination make them feel worried that they are providing a sub-optimal care for their patients and 55% recommended a subsequent in-person visit for further evaluation in (1%–20%) of telemedicine visits. Most Neurologists (95%) rated patients’ technological challenges in setting up a telemedicine visit as the most common issue encountered and 37% rated both patient’s cognitive/mental disability and the limited availability of interpreter services for non-English speaking patients to be the other common challenges encountered during telemedicine visits. Neurologists rated improving administrative support (39%), integrating EMR with video and telephone calls (37%), and allotment of sufficient time to complete telemedicine visits (27%) to be the most important issues to be addressed to facilitate using telemedicine in neurology.SignificancePotential opportunities to improve neurologists’ experiences with telemedicine include improving technological support, integrating virtual platforms within EMR and providing adequate administrative support. Patients with cognitive and or physical disabilities may need additional support to engage in the healthcare system via telemedicine.