Initial Practice Recommendations for Teleneuropsychology

Abstract

Telemedicine refers to the use of electronic communications to deliver health-related services from a distance, and is particularly useful in bringing specialty services to remote and/or underserved areas. Despite the increasing use of videoconference technology in psychology, there are very few guidelines to direct practitioners as to the ethical practice and utilization of telemedicine, and even fewer resources for practitioners of telecognitive assessment or teleneuropsychology. This paper seeks to outline several practical and ethical considerations that are relevant to the practice of telecognitive assessment and to assist practitioners in providing safe, ethical, and competent care to their patients by proposing some initial practice recommendations.

Forensic Assessment via Videoconferencing: Issues and Practice Considerations

“…In a similar vein, problems with the video quality would make it difficult for the examiner to observe vividly and correct the examinee for any mistake on the TMT. In the event of the above situation(s), the forensic practitioner would have to consider repeating the test instructions, providing additional clarifications, or readministering a test or a portion of a test in the event of a disrupted connectivity (Grosch, Gottlieb, & Cullum, 2011).…”

Verbal Naming Test for Use with Older Adults: Development and Initial Validation

“…Tele-neuropsychology is a growing area in clinical neuropsychology (Cullum et al, 2006;Grosch et al, 2011), and this measure can be used in such evaluations, without concerns over how best to show visual stimuli to patients over the teleconference medium.…”

“…The absence of a non-visual measure of word-finding is, therefore, unique in the field of clinical neuropsychology. Such a measure would enable the evaluation of word-finding ability in patients with visual impairment, as well as over the telephone for patients who are unable to travel to a clinic, or in the emerging field of tele-neuropsychology (Cullum, Weiner, Gehrmann, & Hynan, 2006;Grosch, Gottlieb, & Cullum, 2011). The aim of this project was to fill this void by creating a verbal (nonvisual) measure of word-finding and to report on its preliminary psychometric properties.…”

A Flexible and Integrated System for the Remote Acquisition of Neuropsychological Data in Stroke Research

“…This makes it difficult for researchers to work with participants who do not live in the same local area, 16,17 and it diminishes the participation of individuals with limited physical mobility or unreliable sources of transportation. [18][19][20] The ability to remotely acquire neuropsychological data from stroke survivors located in their homes would, therefore, be an attractive alternative to face-to-face testing. 19,[21][22][23] This motivates the present effort to develop a flexible and integrated system for the remote acquisition of neuropsychological data (RAND).…”

“…For review, see Refs. 18,20,[26][27][28] Furthermore, videoconferencing has been extended into home settings to deliver treatment for stuttering without face-to-face researcher contact. [29][30][31] However, none of these prior works has involved a system suitable for the flexible acquisition of neuropsychological data in home-based settings.…”