Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Epilepsia. 2020 Aug;61(8):e95-e100. doi: 10.1111/epi.16619. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
We describe the largest-to-date single-center implementation of tele-epilepsy. Beginning in 2017, all patients at a single tertiary care academic epilepsy center were offered the option to complete outpatient follow-up visits via video-conferencing using personal devices. A retrospective review of all patients who self-selected virtual visits over nearly 3 years showed 2140 patients completed 3698 tele-epilepsy visits, with 41% completing more than one visit during the study period. Based on the distance from the center to the home address, 26.7% of patients were local (≤50 miles), 30.5% were near regional (51-150 miles), 20.1% were far regional (151-270 miles), and 22.7% were remote (>270 miles), from 43 different states. An estimated 928 696 miles of travel was prevented, with a median travel distance saved of 124.5 miles (interquartile range = 45.0-253.0). The mean visit time was 15.7 (±10.4) minutes. More than 90% of patients gave the visit and provider experience the maximum rating, with a nearly 60% response rate on the post-visit survey. Virtual outpatient follow-up care provides a convenient way to connect with epilepsy specialists and reduce the burden of care by cutting travel time. Our experience demonstrates that outpatient tele-epilepsy is feasible, sustainable, and scalable.
我们描述了迄今为止最大的单中心远程癫痫实施情况。自 2017 年以来，我们为单一的三级保健学术癫痫中心的所有患者提供了通过使用个人设备进行视频会议完成门诊随访的选择。对近 3 年来自行选择虚拟就诊的所有患者进行回顾性审查，发现 2140 例患者完成了 3698 次远程癫痫就诊，其中 41%的患者在研究期间完成了一次以上就诊。根据中心到家庭住址的距离，26.7%的患者为本地（≤50 英里），30.5%为近区域（51-150 英里），20.1%为远区域（151-270 英里），22.7%为远程（>270 英里），来自 43 个不同的州。估计可避免 928696 英里的旅行，中位数节省的旅行距离为 124.5 英里（四分位距= 45.0-253.0）。平均就诊时间为 15.7（±10.4）分钟。超过 90%的患者对就诊和提供服务的体验给予了最高评价，在就诊后调查中，近 60%的患者做出了回应。远程门诊随访为与癫痫专家联系提供了一种便捷的方式，并通过减少旅行时间来减轻护理负担。我们的经验表明，门诊远程癫痫是可行、可持续和可扩展的。
