Harper Kelly, Hanson Claire, Eoff Bryan, Riebau Derek, Charles David
Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Neurology, A-0118 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN, USA
Vanderbilt University Program in Neuroscience, 2201 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, USA
Rural Remote Health. 2023 Mar;23(1):7591. doi: 10.22605/RRH7591. Epub 2023 Mar 20.
Telemedicine is a valuable tool to increase access to health care, especially for patients in rural areas who need to visit a specialist. In place of telemedicine robots, which are costly and complicated, hospitals have implemented successful telemedicine programs using lower-cost tablet technology; opting for tablet technology increases the organizational feasibility of a large-scale telemedicine program.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, launched its teleneurology network program in 2014 to serve patients in surrounding community hospitals who needed a neurology consult. Consults are conducted using an iPad, including examinations and the secure sharing of images and patient information. This article reports on teleneurology consult data and the results of patient and physician satisfaction surveys.
Between February 2014 and November 2021, the VUMC teleneurology network program provided consultations for 14 241 patients with a wide variety of neurological diagnoses presenting to 12 community-based hospitals. Patient and community physician satisfaction surveys showed that 96% of physicians were satisfied with the overall care provided, and 89% of patients reported that the telehealth visits met their medical needs.
One of the goals of telemedicine programs is to increase access to care. Therefore, it is important that the technology used to implement the program also be accessible in terms of cost and complexity. Tablets are low-cost technology, and their use in telemedicine has been shown to satisfy both physicians and patients with a wide variety of diagnoses.
远程医疗是增加医疗服务可及性的一项重要工具，对于需要看专科医生的农村地区患者而言尤为如此。医院摒弃了成本高昂且操作复杂的远程医疗机器人，转而采用成本较低的平板电脑技术实施了成功的远程医疗项目；选择平板电脑技术提高了大规模远程医疗项目的组织可行性。
美国田纳西州纳什维尔的范德比尔特大学医学中心（VUMC）于2014年启动了其远程神经病学网络项目，为周边社区医院中需要进行神经病学会诊的患者提供服务。会诊通过iPad进行，包括检查以及图像和患者信息的安全共享。本文报告了远程神经病学会诊数据以及患者和医生满意度调查结果。
在2014年2月至2021年11月期间，VUMC远程神经病学网络项目为12家社区医院的14241名患有各种神经系统疾病的患者提供了会诊。患者和社区医生满意度调查显示，96%的医生对所提供的整体护理感到满意，89%的患者表示远程医疗就诊满足了他们的医疗需求。
远程医疗项目的目标之一是增加医疗服务的可及性。因此，实施该项目所使用的技术在成本和复杂性方面也应易于获取，这一点很重要。平板电脑是低成本技术，其在远程医疗中的应用已被证明能让患有各种疾病的医生和患者都感到满意。
