Telemedicine Anticipates Progression of Surgical Practices

Follow-up telehealth visits are highly effective during the COVID-19 pandemic as per a study – "The Impact of Telemedicine Adoption on a Multidisciplinary Bariatric Surgery Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic," at Stony Brook Medicine's Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Center, published in the journal Annals of Surgery. This predicts that surgical practices can continue to thrive with the help of telemedicine during the pandemic. "Embracing telemedicine has been extremely effective for our practice and certainly can be for other practices during this pandemic. Our patients and multiple healthcare providers involved in metabolic health and bariatric surgery services find telemedicine to be effective because in-person care is not necessary for certain aspects of patient care and follow-up, and telemedicine saves time and reduces exposure risks for patients and providers alike," says Aurora D. Pryor, MD, lead author and Director of the Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Center, and Professor of Surgery at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Telemedicine in the era of Pandemic:

The study documented 506 patient visits in pre-telehealth – 162 new patient visits & 344 follow-ups and 413 post-telehealth visits ( 77 new patient visits and 336 f low-ups) by pandemic guidelines.

With the implementation of telehealth, the new visits for surgeons decreased by 75 per cent involve period, and follow-ups surgical visits decreased by 55 per cent. Nonetheless, during telehealth, there was a 27 per cent increase for other non-surgical practitioners involve in the Bariatric and patient’s Weight Loss Center practice, an indication that patients have been able to continue their care to a high degree post-surgery or before elective surgery.

The present study this emphasises that, despite certain decrease in the patient’s volume, the increase in follow-up visits for some healthcare services provides a template for the adoption of a multidisciplinary telehealth clinic in a post-pandemic world.

Source-Medindia