Specialists have reported a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of telemedicine in pediatric neurology at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase was most marked in the neuromuscular division.
At the ICNA/CNS 2020 virtual conference, Dr Albert Misko from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, USA, presented data on the use of telemedicine in the pediatric neurology, adult neurology, and pediatric departments of the MGH from October 2019 through to March 2020 (the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic).
The researchers calculated the increase in virtual visit utilization (by video or phone) by dividing the number of virtual visits in March 2020 by the average number of virtual visits in the period October 2019 to February 2020.
Dr Misko reported that the average number of telemedicine visits rose in all three departments in March 2020: