Introduction: Telemedicine (TM) or telehealth is defined as the delivery of healthcare services at a distance using electronic means. It is a rapidly growing field of medicine that uses telecommunication to provide healthcare services to patients such as the elderly and those in rural locations who may otherwise be unable to make it to the hospital or physician's office. With the rise in the popularity of TM, educating future physicians on this technology will become vital. This study aimed to explore medical students' experiences and opinions regarding TM. Methods: An online survey was sent to 287 medical students in 20 different allopathic medical schools in the United States. The survey consisted of 14 questions that included demographic information, information regarding TM exposure, interest in TM, and plans for future utilization. Results: The result of this study indicated that only 17.4% of medical students had prior exposure to TM. However, the increased exposure to TM helped not only to increase awareness of the technology but also helped students form opinions on TM. Lastly, students in all intended specialties had interests in utilizing TM in the future with specialties such as pathology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, and dermatology indicating the highest levels of interest. Conclusion: As medicine continues to incorporate technology into the care of patients, training institutions need to expose future physicians to the modalities of care they will be utilizing. The results of this survey suggest that the development of education and exposure to TM will become increasingly important as more medical students indicate interest in utilizing this technology.
Background: Patients with rheumatologic disorders often have comorbidities that complicate their psychological well-being. In this study, we looked at 216 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) to determine the prevalence of anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, fibromyalgia (FM), obesity (BMI greater than 23), and gastroesophageal disease (GERD) and the correlation between FM, BMI, disease activity measure, known as Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3). Methods: Study participants were 216 rheumatology patients seen at the UCF Pegasus Health Clinic from November 2011 to May 2014 with one or more of the following diseases: RA, SS, SLE, or PsA. 116 had rheumatoid arthritis, 27 with systemic lupus erythematous, 22 with psoriatic arthritis, 20 with Sjogren’s syndrome, and 31 with more than one diagnosis. Variables that were collected from patient’s charts included RAPID3 scores, patient demographics (age, sex), BMI, presence of GERD, and presence of FM. Each patient was randomly assigned, unique and had an unidentifiable study number. Results: Anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance and obesity were found to be more prevalent in patients with Sjogren’s syndrome, and fibromyalgia was noted to be more prevalent in patients with more than 1 diagnosis. The presence of fibromyalgia was significantly correlated with higher RAPID3 scores in all patients except those with PsA. Significant correlation among higher BMI and greater RAPID3 scores was found for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and for patients with Sjogren’s syndrome. Conclusion: Our study showed increased prevalence of anxiety in patients with Sjogren’s syndrome. Fibromyalgia was found to be related to higher disease activity scores. In RA and SS patients, BMI was significantly correlated with higher RAPID3 scores. These results provide a basis for future studies to evaluate these correlations in more detail.
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