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Telemedicine Provides Lifeline for Patients in Kansas

While the technology has been helpful in connecting doctors to their patients, there are still kinks to be worked out. Spotty Internet access, technological skills gaps and a lack of physical connection remain challenging.

doctor at a laptop with a cellphone.
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(TNS) — One silver lining of the otherwise dire coronavirus pandemic, area health care professionals say, has been the implementation of telemedicine, the practice of visiting with patients via telecommunications.

That doesn't, however, mean its high-priority rollout has come without a learning curve, a reality one Topeka-based doctor had reinforced ahead of a recent session that was slotted to be done by video teleconference.

"One of my patients had to reschedule today because they're still using a flip phone," said Dr. Wade B. Welch, a neurologist at the University of Kansas Health System St. Francis campus. "That's pretty amazing, you know?"

While kinks remain to be worked out — patients' familiarity and comfort level with the technology used; often spotty access to reliable Internet and the recent strain put on broadband networks worldwide; and the inability of health care providers to make physical contact with a patient over video — telemedicine's debut has nevertheless been "a godsend," Welch said.

That rings true for groups who would have taken advantage of the service with or without a pandemic, such as older adults, patients with mobility issues and individuals who live in rural areas.

"It's sort of like a magical bridge between me and a patient," Welch said, "so it eliminates a lot of obstacles that are normally present for patients."

Those groups will continue to need quality care long after COVID-19 is gone, which perhaps points to telemedicine's long-term viability.

"(Telemedicine) is here to stay, even post-pandemic," said Dr. Sushmita Veloor, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at St. Francis. "This opens up a lot of opportunities for us to reach out to those patients."

The majority of St. Francis' telemedicine visits have come via video teleconference (68%), with smaller numbers connecting via telephone (27%) and electronic medical records system MyChart (4%). Veloor noted that nearly half (47.82%) of St. Francis' total telemedicine visits have been utilized by individuals over the age of 60, a "pleasant surprise" given the challenges new technology can sometimes pose to that age group.

Another welcome sight, Veloor said, has been the way the medical community has risen to the challenge of this moment, particularly in its expedited implementation of telemedicine.

"It's never happened in history before where you've seen this go from a project that could've taken two to three years to put in place to making it happen in about two weeks or so," Veloor said. "And so pretty much every health care system has jumped on board because we were dealing with a completely new scenario that none of us had seen before, and we had to adapt and be prepared and change how we were doing this rather quickly."

Sometimes referred to as telehealth, telemedicine has been "a wonderful thing for patients" in terms of both safety and convenience, said Dr. Kevin Dishman, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Stormont Vail Health.

"Technology will never replace that personal relationship with your family physician, someone who knows you," Dishman said. "Telehealth is just a component of that care. It's a tool. It will never replace staff. It will never replace visiting with your physician. It will never replace the high-quality healthcare you get from somebody that's known you forever. What it is, it's the ability to add another tool to our armamentarium to take better care of people. ...

"I've been here long enough to where I can remember when everything was on paper, before we moved to an electronic medical record, so that's been a huge thing. I think telehealth is going to be as big as that."

©2020 The Topeka Capital-Journal, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.