Development of a telemedicine program: a review of 1,000 videoconferencing consultations.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the financial and organizational characteristics, demand for services, and satisfaction outcomes of a growing telemedicine program serving both urban or suburban and rural populations. DESIGN: Retrospective review of 1,000 consecutive telemedicine consultations in the University of California (UC) Davis Telemedicine Program. SETTING: Telemedicine videoconferencing units, used to integrate care in the UC Davis Health System among the UC Davis Medical Center and several urban or suburban primary care clinics, rural hospitals, and clinic affiliates. SUBJECTS: A total of 657 consecutive patients who consented to a telemedicine consultation. Main outcome measures Demographic information about the patient population, the rural and urban or suburban clinics, the types of specialty consultations, and telemedicine equipment used in the UC Davis Health System. Patient and physician satisfaction were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Patients and primary care physicians reported high levels of satisfaction. Rural clinics requested more and a greater variety of specialist consultations than urban or suburban clinics. CONCLUSION: Although referring physicians and patients indicate a high level of satisfaction with telemedicine services and insurers are negotiating reimbursement policies, additional research must investigate the reasons why some payers, patients, and providers resist participation in these services.

A proposed model for telemedicine to supplement the physician workforce in the USA.

Maldistribution of physicians is the norm in much of the USA. This paper explores the effect that the integration of telemedicine into the health system could have on physician workforce requirements in the USA. The analysis is based on preliminary evidence suggesting that telemedicine is an effective and efficient means of delivering a broad spectrum of health services to medically under-served rural and inner-city communities. While the emphasis here is on interactive, video-based telemedicine services, other telemedicine modalities, such as store-and-forward techniques and remote monitoring, are likely to have a parallel effect. As these new technologies become a normal part of health care, they will reshape the medical workforce and exert a profound influence on physician workforce requirements in the USA. This paper presents a potential model for this reshaped workforce that emphasizes an expanded role for mid-level health-care providers.

A new method to examine very low birth weight fetal and hebdomadal mortality in a regionalized system of perinatal care.

OBJECTIVE: Aggressive maternal transport of very low birth weight (VLBW) live births from community hospitals to regional perinatal centers may artificially increase community fetal death rates. By allocating maternal transports according to the location of antepartum and intrapartum care and separately computing antepartum and intrapartum fetal mortality rates, a more appropriate measure of hospital-based mortality may be determined. METHOD: Delivery charts were reviewed for 568 VLBW deliveries (including 97 fetal deaths and 77 hebdomadal deaths) occurring between 1990 and 1992 in a geographically defined perinatal region. Maternal transports were analyzed with community hospitals for antepartum mortality rates and with the regional center for intrapartum mortality rates. RESULTS: Using traditional methods, the fetal mortality rates for community hospitals and the regional center were antepartum 385.1 vs. 45.2, respectively, and intrapartum 120.9 vs. 24.9, respectively. When regional center live births (maternal transports) are placed with community hospitals for analysis of antepartum mortality, the new antepartum mortality rates were 185.7 vs. 72.8, respectively. The hebdomadal mortality rate for community hospitals was 250.0 as compared to 145.8 for the regional center. CONCLUSION: Maternal transports to a regional center represent successful antepartum management by community care providers. Even though they delivered in the regional center, they should be analyzed with community hospitals for antepartum fetal mortality comparisons. Therefore, antepartum and intrapartum fetal mortality should be examined separately in a functioning regionalized perinatal care program where the location of patient care differs from location of delivery.

Reproductive risk factors for epilepsy among ten-year-old children in metropolitan Atlanta.

The elements of a woman's reproductive history that may be associated with her risk of having a child who develops epilepsy have not been well described. To examine these possible associations, we used a multiple-source case ascertainment method to identify ten-year-old children with epilepsy who were living in the metropolitan Atlanta area in 1985-87; same-age control children were selected from public schools. To obtain reproductive history and other information, we interviewed 107 mothers of children with epilepsy and 408 mothers of control children. Twenty-nine children with a known intrauterine or postnatal aetiology were excluded from the analysis. We computed adjusted odds ratios for reproductive history characteristics, controlling for the race of the child, maternal education, census block group income, maternal pregnancy history and family history of a developmental disability. Our analyses indicated that mothers of children with epilepsy not only had more previous live births, but more previous adverse reproductive outcomes including spontaneous abortions, very low birthweight infants and infants with birth defects. The risk was especially strong for maternal history of a child with a birth defect. The specific types of birth defects reported in excess include central nervous system defects (specifically spina bifida) and Down's syndrome.