OBJECTIVE: To provide guidelines to healthcare workers for performing a focused neurological examination via telemedicine during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic. METHODS: We reviewed our department's outpatient clinic visits after the implementation of a telemedicine protocol in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Crossover rates from telehealth to in-person visits were evaluated and guidelines for performing a telemedicine neurological exam were created based on the consensus of 16 neurosurgical attending providers over a four-month period. RESULTS: From March 23, 2020 to July 20, 2020, some 2157 telehealth visits were performed in our department. Some 26 were converted to in-person visits by the provider request with the most cited reason for conversion being the need for a more detailed patient evaluation. Based on these experiences, we created a graphical tutorial to address the key components of the neurological exam with adaptations specific to the telehealth visit. CONCLUSIONS: In response to the global coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has become an integral part of neurosurgeons' daily practice. Telemedicine failures remain low but primarily occur due to a need for more comprehensive evaluations. We provide guidelines for the neurosurgical exam during telehealth visits in an effort to assuage some of these issues.
OBJECTIVE: To provide guidelines to healthcare workers for performing a focused neurological examination via telemedicine during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic. METHODS: We reviewed our department's outpatient clinic visits after the implementation of a telemedicine protocol in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Crossover rates from telehealth to in-person visits were evaluated and guidelines for performing a telemedicine neurological exam were created based on the consensus of 16 neurosurgical attending providers over a four-month period. RESULTS: From March 23, 2020 to July 20, 2020, some 2157 telehealth visits were performed in our department. Some 26 were converted to in-person visits by the provider request with the most cited reason for conversion being the need for a more detailed patient evaluation. Based on these experiences, we created a graphical tutorial to address the key components of the neurological exam with adaptations specific to the telehealth visit. CONCLUSIONS: In response to the global coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has become an integral part of neurosurgeons' daily practice. Telemedicine failures remain low but primarily occur due to a need for more comprehensive evaluations. We provide guidelines for the neurosurgical exam during telehealth visits in an effort to assuage some of these issues.
Authors: Lekhaj C Daggubati; Daniel G Eichberg; Michael E Ivan; Simon Hanft; Alireza Mansouri; Ricardo J Komotar; Randy S D'Amico; Brad E Zacharia Journal: World Neurosurg Date: 2020-05-22 Impact factor: 2.104
Authors: Daniel G Eichberg; Gregory W Basil; Long Di; Ashish H Shah; Evan M Luther; Victor M Lu; Maggy Perez-Dickens; Ricardo J Komotar; Allan D Levi; Michael E Ivan Journal: Neurosurgery Date: 2020-12-15 Impact factor: 4.654