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Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a broader implementation of telemedicine for many diseases has become apparent. Televisits are one type of telemedicine in which clinical visits are conducted remotely using an audio-visual connection with the patient at home. The use of televis...

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Autores principales: Corea, Francesco, Ciotti, Silvia, Cometa, Antonella, De Carlo, Claudia, Martini, Giancarlo, Baratta, Silvano, Zampolini, Mauro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/neurolint13010003
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author Corea, Francesco
Ciotti, Silvia
Cometa, Antonella
De Carlo, Claudia
Martini, Giancarlo
Baratta, Silvano
Zampolini, Mauro
author_facet Corea, Francesco
Ciotti, Silvia
Cometa, Antonella
De Carlo, Claudia
Martini, Giancarlo
Baratta, Silvano
Zampolini, Mauro
author_sort Corea, Francesco
collection PubMed
description Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a broader implementation of telemedicine for many diseases has become apparent. Televisits are one type of telemedicine in which clinical visits are conducted remotely using an audio-visual connection with the patient at home. The use of televisits is more established in Stroke care but was also recently formally evaluated for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This retrospective case series describes patient characteristics and reasons for televisits in persons with MS during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Italy, which was declared in February 2020. Methods: Recruitment occurred in a general hospital based MS clinic during Italy’s lockdown months period (9 March–18 May). Each subject completed at least one televisit. The baseline data included were demographics and MS history; reasons for the remote house calls were analyzed focusing on COVID-19 related needs. Results: Forty-six participants completed at least one study visit. The patients enrolled were more often females suffering from Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). Half of the patients had an intermediate level of education and lived within a 60 min drive from the clinic. These patients predominately had a short disease duration and were mostly involved in oral treatment. The main reasons for the call were drug use and counseling on social distancing. In 5 cases, COVID-19 infection was reported. Conclusions: Televisits during the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrated their utility as a care delivery method for MS. Hence, it is vital to facilitate the implementation of this technology in common practice to both face infectious threats and increase accessibility of the health care system.
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spelling pubmed-78390122021-01-28 Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective Corea, Francesco Ciotti, Silvia Cometa, Antonella De Carlo, Claudia Martini, Giancarlo Baratta, Silvano Zampolini, Mauro Neurol Int Communication Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a broader implementation of telemedicine for many diseases has become apparent. Televisits are one type of telemedicine in which clinical visits are conducted remotely using an audio-visual connection with the patient at home. The use of televisits is more established in Stroke care but was also recently formally evaluated for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This retrospective case series describes patient characteristics and reasons for televisits in persons with MS during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Italy, which was declared in February 2020. Methods: Recruitment occurred in a general hospital based MS clinic during Italy’s lockdown months period (9 March–18 May). Each subject completed at least one televisit. The baseline data included were demographics and MS history; reasons for the remote house calls were analyzed focusing on COVID-19 related needs. Results: Forty-six participants completed at least one study visit. The patients enrolled were more often females suffering from Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). Half of the patients had an intermediate level of education and lived within a 60 min drive from the clinic. These patients predominately had a short disease duration and were mostly involved in oral treatment. The main reasons for the call were drug use and counseling on social distancing. In 5 cases, COVID-19 infection was reported. Conclusions: Televisits during the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrated their utility as a care delivery method for MS. Hence, it is vital to facilitate the implementation of this technology in common practice to both face infectious threats and increase accessibility of the health care system. MDPI 2021-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7839012/ /pubmed/33477432 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/neurolint13010003 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Corea, Francesco
Ciotti, Silvia
Cometa, Antonella
De Carlo, Claudia
Martini, Giancarlo
Baratta, Silvano
Zampolini, Mauro
Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title_full Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title_fullStr Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title_short Telemedicine during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Outpatients Service Perspective
title_sort telemedicine during the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic: a multiple sclerosis (ms) outpatients service perspective
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/neurolint13010003
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