Telemedicine is changing how physicians view medicine, according to Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center's Corey Siegel, MD, who shared his thoughts on the subject in AGA Perspectives.
Here's what you should know:
1. Dr. Siegel feared telemedicine would worsen feelings of patient dissatisfaction when the concept was first introduced, but he has since changed his mind.
2. Utilizing telemedicine can help physicians meet the quadruple aim framework, he said.
3. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center runs a telemedicine clinic for inflammatory bowel disease patients. Dr. Siegel first feared patients would feel slighted by not coming to the office. After surveying patients, however, he found they preferred the teleclincs to hospital visits that could require a two-hour drive for some.
4. The teleclinc had similar outcomes to onsite care, and patients said it improved their experience.
5. Dr. Siegel acknowledged telemedicine still has several regulatory loopholes. He doesn't receive relative value units or reimbursement for teleclinic visits, but he offsets the lost upfront costs with the downstream revenue the patients bring in through the hospital's IBD Center.