Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Oct;2(4):123-8.
doi: 10.1177/1941874412450716.

Telemedicine in Leading US Neurology Departments

Benjamin P George  1 , Nicholas J Scoglio, Jason I Reminick, Balaraman Rajan, Christopher A Beck, Abraham Seidmann, Kevin M Biglan, E Ray Dorsey
Affiliations

Telemedicine in Leading US Neurology Departments

Benjamin P George et al. Neurohospitalist. 2012 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the current practice and plans for telemedicine at leading US neurology departments.

Design and setting: An electronic survey was sent to department chairs, administrators, or faculty involved in telemedicine at 47 neurology departments representing the top 50 hospitals as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

Main outcome measures: Current use, size, scope, reimbursement, and perceived quality of telemedicine services.

Results: A total of 32 individuals from 30 departments responded (64% response rate). The primary respondents were neurology faculty (66%) and department chairs (22%). Of the responding departments, 60% (18 of 30) currently provide telemedicine and most (n = 12) had initiated services within the last 2 years. Two thirds of those not providing telemedicine plan to do so within a year. Departments provide services to patients in state, out of state, and internationally, but only 6 departments had more than 50 consultations in the last year. The principal applications were stroke (n = 14), movement disorders (n = 4), and neurocritical care (n = 3). Most departments (n = 12) received external funding for telemedicine services, but few departments (n = 3) received payment from insurers (eg, Medicare, Medicaid). Reimbursement (n = 21) was the most frequently identified barrier to implementing telemedicine services. The majority of respondents (n = 20) find telemedicine to be equivalent to in-person care.

Conclusions: Over 85% of leading US neurology departments currently use or plan to implement telemedicine within the next year. Addressing reimbursement may allow for its broader application.

Keywords: telehealth; telemedicine; teleneurology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: Dr Biglan and Dr Dorsey use Polycom technology to provide telemedicine services. Mr George, Mr Scoglio, Mr Reminick, Mr Rajan, Dr Beck, and Dr Seidmann report no conflicting interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Challenges to implementing telemedicine as perceived by survey respondents at leading US neurology departments, 2010.* *Respondents had the option to select multiple and, therefore, responses do not sum to 100%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Telemedicine: A Global Strategic Business Report San Jose, CA: Global Industry Analysts, Inc; 2009
    1. Schwamm LH, Rosenthal ES, Hirshberg A, et al. Virtual TeleStroke support for the emergency department evaluation of acute stroke. Acad Emerg Med. 2004;11(11):1193–1197 - PubMed
    1. Meyer BC, Lyden PD, Al-Khoury L, et al. Prospective reliability of the STRokE DOC wireless/site independent telemedicine system. Neurology. 2005;64(6):1058–1060 - PubMed
    1. Hess DC, Wang S, Hamilton W, et al. REACH: clinical feasibility of a rural telestroke network. Stroke. 2005;36(9):2018–2020 - PubMed
    1. Vespa PM. Multimodality monitoring and telemonitoring in neurocritical care: from microdialysis to robotic telepresence. Curr Opin Crit Care. 2005;11(2):133–138 - PubMed