Teleneurology Visits Acceptable to Patients Across Neurologic Conditions

Regardless of their neurologic condition, patients rated outpatient teleneurology appointments as highly acceptable, according to a study published in the Journal of Neurology.

“There is a tremendous shortage of neurologists in the United States, and neurologists, like many specialists, tend to be at a higher density in urban areas and lower density in rural areas,” said study senior author Linda S. Williams, MD, of the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana. “Teleneurology is one way that care can be more efficient. We can see many more patients in a given day via telehealth compared to driving to a single remote clinic and so can spread a scarce resource.”

The prospective study included 277 veterans interviewed 2 weeks after an outpatient teleneurology appointment. Teleneurology visits were conducted via video to home or video to a primary care clinic. Patients rated acceptability of the visits by answering three 7-point Likert questions. Higher scores indicated greater acceptability.

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Among the patients, diagnosis codes indicated headache for 25.3%, movement disorders for 16.6%, general symptoms for 16.2%, and other categories for 41.9%.

Patient acceptability of telehealth visits was a mean 18.3 out of a possible 21 points, according to the study. Acceptability scores did not differ among patient groups. Older patients were just as accepting of teleneurology visits as younger patients.

The study did identify a single factor independently associated with acceptability: medical comorbidity. In short, patients with higher comorbidity tended to have higher teleneurology acceptance scores.

“Older patients and those with more medical complexity often make up a large portion of the patients requiring care by a neurologist,” said study corresponding author Courtney R. Seigel, a student at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “These findings will help health care providers realize they should not exclude consideration of teleneurology for patients that fall into these groups.”

References

Seigel CR, Martin H, Bastin G, et al. Patient acceptance of teleneurology across neurologic conditions. J Neurol. 2024;271(5):2850-2858. doi:10.1007/s00415-024-12200-y

Study examines acceptability of teleneurology across neurological conditions. News release. Regenstrief Institute; June 24, 2024. Accessed August 2, 2024.