Telemedicine

PHOENIX — Telemedicine was a feasible and satisfactory alternative to in-person visits for identifying asthma triggers in patient homes, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.

While in-person visits for patients with cystic fibrosis decreased from 2019 to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study found no evidence of worse lung disease, nutrition or increased risk for pulmonary exacerbations.

Seventy-two organizations submitted a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration asking for a permanent waiver of the requirement that patients be evaluated in person before being prescribed controlled substances via telemedicine.

PHOENIX — With new treatments, technologies and billing policies, providers may feel like they are falling behind their competition and failing their patients and their practices. Strategies and resources, however, are available.

In a Healio video exclusive, Remo Panaccione, MD, of the University of Calgary, discusses the key differences between seeing a patient in-person vs. virtually.

Lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic did not compromise diabetic foot ulcer prognosis if patients remained under the care of expert wound centers, according to findings published in Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews.

Expanding telemedicine could increase access to care, reduce costs and help people with obesity stick with a treatment regimen, according to a review article published in Obesity.

Despite their increasing comfort with video and telemedicine visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, most rheumatologists at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs remain skeptical of the technology’s use for new patients, according to data.

Pediatric allergy clinics can use telemedicine to increase accessibility, with subsequent in-person visits scheduled for necessary testing, according to a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Patients newly diagnosed with cancer and considered to be of high socioeconomic status had the highest use of telemedicine in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a research letter published in JAMA Oncology.