American Epilepsy Society: Seizing the Digital Divide: How Telemedicine Connects the Dots in Epilepsy Care Equity Access to epilepsy specialist care is not uniform in the USA, with prominent gaps in rural areas. Understanding the reasons for nonattendance at epilepsy appointments may help identify access hurdles faced by patients. This study found that telemedicine is [...]
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies: Telehealth and In-Person Diagnosis of Musculoskeletal Conditions This study assessed the concurrent validity and inter-rater agreement of the diagnosis of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions using synchronous telehealth compared to standard in-person clinical diagnosis. In cases when access to in-person care is constrained, the study implies that telehealth might be a feasible [...]
Journal of General Internal Medicine: Impact of a Remote Primary Care Telehealth Staffing Model on Primary Care Access in the Veterans Health Administration The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented the Clinical Resource Hub (CRH) program to fill staffing gaps in primary care (PC) clinics via telemedicine and maintain veterans’ health care access. This study [...]
Mental Health Groups Sent Letter on Schedule IIN Non-Narcotic Prescribing Mental health groups are pushing the agency to allow Schedule IIN non-narcotic drugs to be prescribed without an in-person visit. Those include stimulants used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A coalition of mental health groups, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics [...]
Annals of Internal Medicine: Use of Telehealth Among Medical Visits in the United States: Results From the 2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Researchers from the Agency for Healthcare and Quality (AHRQ) found that while only 9.6 percent of health care visits occurred via telehealth, 43.2 percent of those visits were consultations with psychiatrists. In [...]
JAMA Oncology: Assessing the Environmental and Downstream Human Health Impacts of Decentralizing Cancer Care This study assessed potential reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and downstream health harms associated with telemedicine and fully decentralized cancer care. In this cohort study including 123 890 patients seen over 1.6 million visit days, compared with an in-person–preferred care [...]
JAMA Network Open: Navigating Remote Blood Pressure Monitoring—The Devil Is in the Details In this invited commentary, authors respond to Mehta et al, which compared the effectiveness of remote patient monitoring of blood pressure and medication adherence reminders. The authors applauded the study’s strengths, but emphasized the importance of adding implementation context. The authors [...]
JU Open Plus: Telehealth in Urology Beyond COVID-19 Implementation of telehealth accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we move toward the post-COVID-19 era, clinical practice has demonstrated a need for updated policies and quality improvement to solidify the role of telehealth in the urology care setting. The American Urological Association (AUA) Workforce Workgroup and [...]