Telehealth for Supporting Referrals to Specialized Care During COVID-19

Real-life implementation and evaluation of the e-referral system SIPILINK

INTRODUCTION

General Practitioners (GPs) play a key role of gatekeeper, as they coordinate patients' care. However, most of them reported having difficulty to refer patients to hospital, especially in semi-urgent context. To facilitate the referral of semi-urgent patients, we implemented an e-referral platform, named SIPILINK, within 4 wards from a large public French hospital (internal medicine, diabetology, gynaecological surgery and oncology wards). Here, we aimed to evaluate the SIPILINK e-referral platform after 2 years of implementation.

METHODS

The evaluation included a multidimensional assessment based on the RE-AIM framework with the analysis of implementation, requests, health professionals' satisfaction, and estimated hospital payment.

RESULTS

Over 2 years of implementation, GPs sent 113 requests to hospital. Hospital respected the time of response requested by GPs in 93 % of cases and proposed a consultation or hospitalization in respectively 40.7 % and 10.6 % of cases. 100 % of GPs and 78 % of Hospital Practitioners (HPs) were satisfied with the quality of exchanges. 77 % of HPs and 100 % of Care Pathway Managers (CPMs) found that patient care pathways were improved. Nearly all practitioners would recommend this platform for patient referrals.

DISCUSSION

SIPILINK shows promise in streamlining the referral process, enhancing communication, and improving patient care pathways. Further studies including the impact on the quality of care, are needed to assess its effectiveness and sustainability in healthcare settings.

Retrospective analysis of 1,203 cases of referral to a quaternary vascular surgery outpatient clinic within the Unified Health System, São Paulo, Brazil

OBJECTIVE

Through a retrospective analysis of 1,203 cases of referral from primary healthcare units to a specialized quaternary vascular surgical service, the findings of this study revealed a high proportion of inappropriate referrals, which may represent a substantial subutilization of this highly complex service. Consequently, in this study, we aimed to evaluate 1,203 cases of referral to a quaternary vascular surgical service, in São Paulo, Brazil, over a 6-year period, to assess the appropriate need for referral; in addition to the prevalence of surgical indications.

METHODS

In this retrospective analysis, we reviewed the institutional records of participants referred from Basic Healthcare Units to a vascular surgical service inside the Brazilian Unified Health System, between May 2015 and December 2020. Demographic and clinical data were collected. The participants were stratified, as per the reason for referral to the vascular surgical service, previous imaging studies, and surgical treatment indications. Referral appropriateness and complementary examinations were evaluated for each disease cohort. Finally, the prevalence of cases requiring surgical treatment was defined as the outcome measure.

RESULTS

Of the 1,203 referrals evaluated, venous disease was the main reason for referral (53%), followed by peripheral arterial disease (19.4%). A considerable proportion of participants had been referred without complementary imaging or after a long duration of undergoing an examination. Referrals were regarded as inappropriate in 517 (43%) cases. Of these, 32 cases (6.2%) had been referred to the vascular surgical service, as the incorrect specialty. The percentage of referred participants who ultimately underwent surgical treatment was 39.92%. Carotid (18%) and peripheral arterial diseases (18.4%) were correlated with a lower prevalence of surgical treatments.

CONCLUSION

The rate of referral appropriateness to specialized vascular care from primary care settings was low. This may represent a subutilization of quaternary surgical services, with low rates of surgical treatment.

Adherence to Emergency Department Referral Criteria in a Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine Center

Background: The safety of direct-to-consumer telemedicine (TM) is closely related to red flag detection and correct referrals. The adherence to referral criteria from current guidelines is not well quantified. Objective: To analyze the emergency department (ED) referral rate and adherence to referral guidelines in TM encounters of acutely ill patients calling a center that adopts stewardship protocols. Methods: This is a retrospective observational unicentric study, between March 2020 and March 2022, with patients who spontaneously sought direct-to-consumer urgent virtual medical assistance. A video-based teleconsultation was provided immediately after connection. Physicians managed situations according to their clinical judgment. Current guidelines, containing specific guidance for referral if red flags were identified, were available for consultation. Physicians' semiannual performance feedback was carried out. We analyzed the patterns for referral to immediate face-to-face medical evaluation and the agreement degree with the institutional guidelines. Results: A total of 232,197 patients were available, and 14,051 (6.05%) patients were referred to ED. A total of 8,829 (68.4%) referrals were based in specific guidelines according to the International Classification of Diseases hypothesis, and 8,708 (98.6%) were justified according to guidelines. Diarrhea had the highest guidelines' adherence to referral (97.6%), followed by COVID-19 (90%), headache (84.2%), and conjunctivitis (78.8%). Policies did not support 5,222 (31.6%) referrals, though 5,100 (97.6%) of these were justified according to the doctor's clinical judgment. Conclusion: TM doctors' assessment of acutely ill patients has high rates of adherence to guidelines regarding referral. Stewardship protocol adoption provides high rates of red flag description, even in the referral of nonpolicy diseases.

Comparing remote versus in-person assessment of learning skills in children with specific learning disabilities

Background

Interactive telemedicine applications have been progressively introduced in the assessment of cognitive and literacy skills. However, there is still a lack of research focusing on the validity of this methodology for the neuropsychological assessment of children with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD).

Methods

Seventy-nine children including 40 typically developing children (18 males, age 11.5 ± 1.06) and 39 children with SLD (24 males, age 12.3 ± 1.28) were recruited. Each participant underwent the same neuropsychological battery assessing reading accuracy, speed, and comprehension, writing, numerical processing, computation, and semantic numerical sense, twice (once during an in-person session (I) and once during a remote (R) home-based videoconference session). Four groups were subsequently defined based on the administration order. Repeated-measure-ANOVAs with assessment type (R vs. I testing) as within-subject factor and diagnosis (SLD vs. TR) and administration order (R-I vs. I-R) as between-subject factors, and between-group t-tests comparing the two assessment types within each time of administration, were run.

Results

No differences emerged between I and R assessments of reading accuracy and speed, numerical processing, and computation; on the contrary, potential biases against R assessment emerged when evaluating skills in writing, reading comprehension, and semantic numerical sense. However, regardless of the assessment type, the scores obtained with I and R assessments within the same administration time point overlapped.

Discussion

These results partially support the validity and reliability of the assessment of children's learning skills via a remote home-based videoconferencing system. Implementing telemedicine as an assessment tool may increase timely access to primary health care and to support research activity.

[Assessment of the implementation of an care teleregulation project in a Brazilian capital city]

This study evaluates the degree of implementation (DI) of the Regulates+ Brazil project and analyzes to what extent the variations in implementation influence the results observed in access to specialized appointments in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. This is an evaluative research of implementation analysis. A logic model and an analysis and judgment matrix with indicators for evaluating the degree of implementation and the results of the Project were developed and submitted to expert consensus. The data collection was conducted via a semi-structured questionnaire applied to key informants and secondary data extracted from the official documents from Regulates+ Brazil and Brazilian National Regulation System (SISREG), referring to the period from May/2020 to May/2021, which were consolidated and compared with values defined in the matrix. The degree of implementation of the Regulates+ Brazil project in Recife was considered to be implemented (83.7%), as well as the Structure (81.7%) and Methods (84.6%) dimensions. However, most effect indicators underperformed, which, when confronted, were consistent with bottlenecks observed in some components and subcomponents of the Project, such as the performance of professionals in basic health units, which was indicated as incipient, especially regarding follow-up of returned requests. The results suggest that any intervention in Telehealth requires, for its proper implementation, the adequacy of teams and work processes, practices of Continuing Education, as well as a continuous evaluation process, to achieve the expected results, or else it will become another bureaucratization and barrier to access.

Compliance with Specialist Referral for Increased Cancer Risk in Low-Resource Settings: In-Person vs. Telehealth Options

Efforts are underway to improve the accuracy of non-specialist screening for oral cancer (OC) risk, yet better screening will only translate into improved outcomes if at-risk individuals comply with specialist referral. Most individuals from low-resource, minority, and underserved (LRMU) populations fail to complete a specialist referral for OC risk. The goal was to evaluate the impact of a novel approach on specialist referral compliance in individuals with a positive OC risk screening outcome. A total of 60 LRMU subjects who had screened positive for increased OC risk were recruited and given the choice of referral for an in-person (20 subjects) or a telehealth (40 subjects) specialist visit. Referral compliance was tracked weekly over 6 months. Compliance was 30% in the in-person group, and 83% in the telehealth group. Approximately 83-85% of subjects from both groups who had complied with the first specialist referral complied with a second follow-up in-person specialist visit. Overall, 72.5% of subjects who had chosen a remote first specialist visit had entered into the continuum of care by the study end, vs. 25% of individuals in the in-person specialist group. A two-step approach that uses telehealth to overcome barriers may improve specialist referral compliance in LRMU individuals with increased OC risk.

Factors Associated with Avoiding Referrals by Dental Teleconsulting Sessions in Brazil

This cross-sectional analytical study assessed the frequency of avoided referrals of primary care to other care levels by dental teleconsulting and its association with individual and contextual variables using a multilevel approach. It appraised asynchronous dental teleconsulting sessions from the secondary database of the Monitoring and Evaluation System of the Telehealth Results during 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome was "whether referral to secondary care was avoided". Individual variables were related to teleconsulting and professionals that requested it: sex, dental specialty, and dentistry field. Contextual variables were related to each municipality that requested responses: Municipal Human Development Index, oral health teams (OHTs) in primary health care coverage, dental specialty centers coverage, illiteracy rate, Gini index, longevity, and per capita income. A descriptive analysis was made using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Hierarchical Linear and Nonlinear Modeling software was used to perform multilevel analyses to assess the association of individual and contextual variables with avoiding patient referral to other care levels. Most teleconsulting sessions avoided patient referral to other care levels (65.1%). Contextual variables explained 44.23% of the variance in the outcome. Female dentists were more likely to avoid patient referrals than male dentists (OR = 1.74; CI = 0.99-3.44; p = 0.055). In addition, an increase of one percentage point in OHT/PHC coverage of municipalities increased the likelihood of avoiding patient referral by 1% (OR = 1.01; CI = 1.00-1.02; p = 0.02). Teleconsulting sessions efficiently avoided patient referral to other care levels. Both contextual and individual factors were associated with avoided referrals by teleconsulting sessions.

Telemedicine in neurology: advances and possibilities

BACKGROUND

Telemedicine develops from technology that offers opportunities for knowledge transfer and information sharing and allows the provision of health services at a distance.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the number of publications on teleneurology in the last two decades in PubMed and the available evidence on the use of this technology in neurological clinical conditions.

METHODS

A quantitative assessment of publications related to telemedicine and neurology in the last two decades. A search was performed on the PubMed database for the descriptors ("Telemedicine"[Mesh]) AND "Neurology"[Mesh]). A review of the articles retrieved on the topic was carried out to evaluate the innovation processes used and applications in various clinical conditions involving teleneurology.

RESULTS

The search performed on March 14th 2022 resulted in 229 publications involving the topic of telemedicine and neurology between 1999 and 2022. Since 2000, there has been an increase in publications related to this topic, with a peak of 71 articles published in 2020, the year in which the World Health Organization defined the COVID-19 pandemic status.

CONCLUSION

In the last two decades, teleneurology has been developing through the expansion of technological resources and the COVID-19 pandemic intensified this process. Different modalities of teleneurology are studied in several neurology subfields and include teleconsultation (between healthcare professionals or between healthcare professionals and patients), telerehabilitation, telemonitoring and tele-education. The advances achieved by teleneurology in this period encouraged technological innovations and health processes that developed opportunities to improve the care provided in a mechanism of constant evolution.