Neurological teleconsultation for general practitioners

Abstract

A neurology teleconsulting network was implemented between a university hospital in Lisbon and five nearby health centres. PCs equipped for videoconferencing were installed, connected by ISDN lines at 128 kbit/s. Fifty-three general practitioners (GPs) were surveyed. The survey showed that the GPs had difficulties in using computers, but they had definite intentions to use teleconsultation for neurology cases and 83% of the respondents stated that they would probably use the technique. During the study, 90 neurology teleconsultations took place over 55 weeks. The average consultation rate was 1.6 teleconsultations per week (SD 1.3, range 0-6). The conferences lasted 10-45 min. Longer teleconsultations were mainly due to technical difficulties in using computers on the part of users with a low level of computer literacy. The patients were 42 males and 46 females, with a mean age of 38 years (SD 20, range 1-84); two patients were discussed twice. The benefits consisted mainly of advice on patient medication, diagnosis and the prevention of unnecessary specialist consultations or laboratory examinations. Doctor-doctor teleconsultation allows the rapid resolution of queries which otherwise cause stress to patients and increase the cost and complexity of care.

Feasibility of epilepsy follow‐up care through telemedicine: A pilot study on the patient's perspective

“…In neurology, telemedicine has been used for both inpatient (Craig et al, 2000) and outpatient services (Paiva et al, 2001; Samii et al, 2006). Teleneurological applications are still relatively rare, with very few studies describing the use of telemedicine in epilepsy care (Craig et al, 2000; Ahmed et al, 2004; Rasmusson & Hartshorn, 2005).…”

“…prove access to care especially in rural and remote areas (Hess et al, 2006). In Alberta, telemedicine has been used for close to 10 years in specialties such as mental health, rheumatology, and ophthalmology (Tennant et al, 2000;Davis et al, 2001;Simpson et al, 2001;Hailey et al, 2002) In neurology, telemedicine has been used for both inpatient (Craig et al, 2000) and outpatient services (Paiva et al, 2001;Samii et al, 2006). Teleneurological applications are still relatively rare, with very few studies describing the use of telemedicine in epilepsy care (Craig et al, 2000;Ahmed et al, 2004;Rasmusson & Hartshorn, 2005).…”

The ENN Project - A Telematics Experience in Neurology. Das ENN-Projekt - Erfahrungen mit Telematik in der Neurologie

“…ENN teleconsulting addresses mainly GPs’ daily doubts in the treatment of neurological patients, providing doctor‐to‐doctor conferencing. Routine use of the system has met with optimistic evaluation, and system adherence by 7 % of the GPs has been explained in detail previously [36].…”

“…The different needs and requirements of the GPs have been implemented in the multimedia educational tool of sleep, headache and epilepsy. d) Model for the prediction of usage of the telematics technologies The main objective of this study was to assess and understand GPs' attitudes and intentions towards using the teleconsultation system in neurology, implemented in Lisbon, between Hospital de Santa Maria/Neurology Outpatient Clinic and the health care centres of its health unit [36]. The final aim is the promotion of wide acceptance and utilization of the system through the development of adequate communication strategies.…”

“…The role of telemedicine in neurology has been specifically proven for supporting remote neurological examinations [10,11,35,36].…”