VIDEO: How telemedicine has changed rheumatoid arthritis care

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I think there is the, there's sort of the pre-pandemic, there's the intense period of time during the pandemic, and then there is this time now, where we've lived in the pandemic for 3 years now, as of today, as of this month. So, you know, I will say there are pluses and minuses. It's certainly helped us in terms of access, in terms of reaching rural patients with rheumatoid arthritis, overcoming barriers, economic barriers of cost, of putting gas in a car, and then certainly in terms of the safety and being able to continue to care for patients during the height of the pandemic. So, I think there are many pluses in that regard. I think the challenge, being a rheumatologist is someone who needs to lay hands on a person, examine their joints and see them in person. So, I think we've adapted, and it's not going to go away, I think, for all the reasons I said in terms of the access, and, you know, should we be thrown into another pandemic down the road, it's important. But I think we're still navigating how to optimize our care of patients over telemedicine. And that's getting down to really diagnosing and capturing disease activity. But I do think it's given us a window sometimes into people's homes, see their pets, get to know them a little bit better. But also, it's not for everyone. I think there are definitely patients who don't feel it's real care. They don't feel like it was a real visit if they're not coming into the clinic. So I will say we've sort of reverted back to the majority, you know, seeing patients in clinic these days. But it's a great option to have and I think we're still evolving in terms of how to optimize telemedicine and how to train up and coming rheumatologists as well.