ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess show rates between in-person versus telehealth epilepsy clinic before and during COVID-19 pandemic Background: People with Epilepsy (PWE) have unique challenges including transportation limitations and driving restrictions. COVID-19 pandemic opened up the avenue for telehealth, that has helped some PWE to overcome these challenges. In a recent study, respondents reported benefits of telehealth such as improved access and decreased no-show rates Design/Methods: Retrospective chart review of 2-month time blocks, January-February 2020 and 2021 was done for 2 epileptologists' clinic schedules at University of Kentucky. In the pre COVID-19 pandemic time (2020) all visits were in-person. In 2021, 60% of clinic visits were via telehealth. Data collected included total number of patients scheduled for clinic visits, number that showed either in-person or via telehealth, number that no-showed and those who cancelled appointments Results: In 2020, 251 patients where scheduled in-person. In 2021, 94 were scheduled in-person and 149 via telehealth. Odds Ratio (OR) for arrival in 2021 was 2.6826 (95% CI 1.552 to 4.636) p=0.0004. The no-show rate for in-person visits in 2021 was 23.4%, and no-show rate via telehealth was 20.1%. OR of no-show was 0.8251 (95% CI 0.4424 to 1.5386) p= 0.5. In 2021, in-person cancellation rate was 24.4% and telehealth cancellation was 5.36%. OR for cancellations between in-person and telehealth in 2021 was 0.1751 (95% CI 0.0746 to 0.4112) p=0.0001 Conclusions: Based on our results, show rate was higher for telehealth when compared with in-person clinic. We also found that cancellation rate for telehealth was much lower than in-person clinic. These observations likely reflect the ease of keeping an appointment from the comfort of patients' homes without need for transportation in this population that has several restrictions. This also indicates that telehealth option is promising and convenient for epilepsy care, and hence should be continued in the post-pandemic future.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This report summarizes an innovative nationwide, Taiwan Youth with Epilepsy Summit on 2020-11-21 at Tainan. This conference was hosted by the Tainan Epilepsy Association. Method: The process of the initiation, design and training for the conference was reviewed. Parts of the conference will be demonstrated. Result: This innovative conference entitled Taiwan Youth with Epilepsy Summit was attended by the invited members of the deputy of Tainan City Mayor and her members, academic leaders in pediatric and adult epileptologists, medical sociologists, educational professionals. The other participants included social workers, medical professional, medical students and people with epilepsy and their care givers from 12 out of 16 organizations of people with epilepsy in Taiwan. In total 153 persons attended the meeting. This is the biggest gathering in Tainan during the COVID-19 era. Six youths and young adults with epilepsy on behalf of people with epilepsy and their caregivers were the speakers, I firstly addressed the relationship between “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD) and epilepsy. The others proposed some urgent biopsychosocial care and human right needs related to education (one speaker), vocation (two speakers) and traffic regulation (two speakers). Although Taiwan is not a member country of the United Nations, Taiwan is the only country to legislate for the implementation of CRPD. This conference was prepared for the Taiwan State Party Report of implementing the UNs Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the last 4 years. Conclusions: The new paradigm of protecting the human rights and dignity of persons with disability as a national strategy for social welfare created the opportunities of autonomous individuals to participate social policy they concerned. The intelligent youths and young adults with epilepsy in this conference demonstrated their altruistic heart and behavior.