Videoconferencing for orthopaedic outpatients: one-year follow-up

Abstract

We studied whether consultations via videoconferencing and traditional outpatient clinic visits differ in terms of the implementation of the patient management plan during a one-year follow-up. First-admission and follow-up orthopaedic patients were randomly allocated to an outpatient visit at the surgical department of Oulu University Hospital or to videoconferencing at a health centre in Pyhäjärvi. In a prospective one-year study, there were 145 consecutive orthopaedic patients who met the inclusion criteria: 84 referred for their first visit to a specialist and 61 of them for follow-up. There were 66 males (46%) in the study population. Over half the patients had some form of regenerative arthritis: 15% had hip arthritis, 33% knee arthritis and 4% other arthritis. There were no differences in the implementation of the management plan between the two groups. The study showed that videoconferencing is a valid alternative to outpatient clinic visits for orthopaedic specialist consultations.

Quality of care for remote orthopaedic consultations using telemedicine: a randomised controlled trial

“…We did not find any significant difference between the two groups concerning referral to operation, regardless of whether the planned operations were performed or not. This was also the case when the analysis was restricted to the new referred patients (data not presented), which is in conjunction with the findings of another follow-up study on videoconferencing with orthopaedic outpatients [9]. …”

“…Another RCT evaluated patients coming to an emergency department and found telemedicine to be a satisfactory treatment technique [5]. Others suggest that telemedicine is an alternative to conventional visits for orthopaedic patients in an outpatient setting [6–9]. In one study, real-time videoconference was found to suitably provide orthopaedic care to rural areas; however, further investigations, including a cost–benefit analysis, were recommended [10].…”

Economic Evaluation of Web-Based Compared with In-Person Follow-up After Total Joint Arthroplasty

“…Others have investigated remote orthopaedic consultations by various means (videoconference [18][19][20][21][22] , Skype 23 , or teleconference 24 ) and reported cost-savings and similar clinical outcomes compared with in-clinic assessments. Although those alternative methods may achieve savings in some circumstances, the webbased system for routine arthroplasty follow-up provides greater flexibility to complete the assessment at a time and location *The values are given as the mean and the standard deviation.…”

Cost-Effectiveness of Telemedicine in Remote Orthopedic Consultations: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

“…a GP, a general surgeon or a resident) have been present at the remote site together with the patient [8,10,11,34,35]. Some studies reported that a nurse present at the remote site and a specialist at the hospital could provide satisfactory remote consultations in emergency medicine [36][37][38].…”

“…Today, the use of telemedicine to facilitate treatment and care over distance has been investigated in almost all clinical specialties [5][6][7]. Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using telemedicine to provide orthopaedic consultations to patients living in remote areas [8][9][10][11]. Teleorthopaedics involve the delivery of specialist services across a distance, usually between an orthopaedic surgeon and a patient [12].…”