Bridging the gap in epilepsy care: A single-center experience of 3700 outpatient tele-epilepsy visits

Abstract

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.

Keywords: health care delivery; tele-epilepsy; telehealth; telemedicine.