New studies show telemedicine is effective, doesn’t reduce access to care

Widespread issues about telemedicine do not maintain as much as scrutiny, a first-of-its-kind examine highlighting telemedicine’s exceptional effectiveness concludes.

The paper is one among two research on telemedicine by College of Rochester Medical Middle (URMC) researchers showing this week in NEJM Catalyst. The second examine demonstrates the success of URMC’s effort to supply psychological well being providers to nursing properties by way of a hybrid mannequin that features telemedicine.

“For sufferers, the message is evident and reassuring: Telemedicine is an efficient and environment friendly means of receiving many sorts of well being care,” stated Kathleen Worry, Ph.D., lead writer of the primary paper, “Busting Myths concerning the Impression of Telemedicine Parity,” and director of knowledge and analytics on the UR Well being Lab. “Particularly for these with transportation challenges, it’s a service that basically fills a spot—and, vitally, it doesn’t compromise the standard of the care that sufferers obtain.”

Worry and her co-authors used knowledge generated partially by the COVID pandemic, when well being care suppliers throughout the nation quickly expanded their telemedicine providers, to look at three particular issues about telemedicine:

• That it’ll cut back entry to look after probably the most weak sufferers who could also be unable to entry digital providers.
• That reimbursing suppliers for telemedicine providers on the identical charge as conventional providers will encourage telemedicine overuse.
• That telemedicine shouldn’t be an efficient means to supply care.

“We actually dug into the info, and it disproved all three issues, which is actually fairly thrilling,” Worry stated. “Not solely did our most weak sufferers not get left behind—they had been amongst these partaking probably the most with, and benefitting probably the most from, telemedicine providers. We didn’t see worse outcomes or elevated prices, or sufferers needing an elevated quantity of in-person observe up. Nor did we discover proof of overuse. That is excellent care, and it’s equitable look after weak populations.”

Michael Hasselberg, Ph.D., RN, URMC’s chief digital well being officer and the examine’s senior writer, stated the paper marks the primary time anybody has printed complete knowledge refuting the three myths, whose persistence has restricted the adoption of telemedicine nationwide. URMC researchers had been in a singular place to undertake the examine due to the work of greater than 3,000 suppliers throughout the well being system who have interaction in telemedicine and the UR Well being Lab’s capability to research the info generated by their work.

The researchers in contrast knowledge from July to December of 2020, a interval of relative normalcy after the pandemic’s first surge, to pre-pandemic knowledge from July to December of 2019, utilizing knowledge from January to June 2021 as a follow-up interval. Their evaluation encompassed a evaluate of affected person demographics, outcomes, supplier use, visits accomplished and extra.

“For our suppliers, a significant concern about telemedicine has all the time been, ‘What may I miss if I am unable to sit within the room with the affected person?'” Worry stated. “However we merely did not discover any enhance in damaging outcomes. This does not imply telemedicine will exchange in-person care, however it’s clear that it could actually assist individuals entry care extra persistently and comfortably and that it gives a extremely efficient complement to conventional care.”

The second NEJM Catalyst examine checked out a program URMC physicians developed to carry psychiatric and psychotherapeutic sources to nursing residence sufferers by means of a mix of telehealth, on-site visits and employees training. The researchers concluded that this system improved entry to care and decreased the variety of residents requiring anti-psychotic treatment.

“With a small group that we assembled right here at URMC, we have been in a position to have an enormous attain, extending care to sufferers in elements of the state the place high-quality psychological well being providers are scarce at greatest,” stated Adam Simning, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry and the examine’s lead writer. “At a time when nursing properties nationwide are severely understaffed, and the necessity for psychological well being providers amongst their residents is growing, we have effectively redesigned the best way psychological well being providers are supplied to the greater than 50 nursing properties we work with.”

Hasselberg, who was additionally a senior writer on the nursing residence examine, believes each papers will resonate within the medical neighborhood, encouraging payors and policymakers to proceed and increase pandemic-era insurance policies that make the expansion of telemedicine providers doable.