Ruskin P E, Reed S, Kumar R, Kling M A, Siegel E, Rosen M, Hauser P
Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Maryland 21201, USA.
Psychiatr Serv. 1998 Aug;49(8):1086-8. doi: 10.1176/ps.49.8.1086.
The reliability of psychiatric diagnoses made remotely by telecommunication was examined. Two trained interviewers each interviewed the same 30 psychiatric inpatients using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. Fifteen subjects had two in-person interviews, and 15 subjects had one in-person and one remote interview via telecommunication. Interrater reliability was calculated for the four most common diagnoses: major depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, and alcohol dependence. For each diagnosis, interrater reliability (kappa statistic) was identical or almost identical for the patients who had two in-person interviews and those who had an in-person and a remote interview, suggesting that reliable psychiatric diagnoses can be made via telecommunication.
