Case Studies
Improving Primary Care Access to Respirologists Using E-Consults
The Champlain Building Access to Specialists through E-Consultation (BASETM), a secure online platform that allows primary care providers to ask a clinical questions to different specialty groups with the expectation the specialists will respond within 7 days, conducted respirology e-consultations from January 2017 through December 2018. Each e-consultation was categorized by types of questions asked by the provider…
Read MoreE-Consult in addiction medicine: An initiative in COVID lockdown
This article highlights the use of a mobile e-consult platform initiated by the Centre of Addiction Medicine in India, in light of the need for substance use services during the COVID-19 lockdown. The mobile e-consult platform was found to be a promising method to serve patients with substance use disorders, as it enabled providers to easily transmit cases and queries to specialists. Specialists received…
Read MoreClinical Effectiveness of an Outpatient Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management Telementoring Service
The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a Pain E-Consult Program (PEP), a multidisciplinary telementoring service based on the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model to reduce opioid use in the outpatient setting. A PEP was associated with greater reductions in morphine milligram equivalent (MME)/day compared with usual care despite similar rates…
Read MoreClinical Trends Over the First Year of a Psychiatric Electronic Consult Service
This study aims to determine which psychiatric diagnoses are most commonly used for e-consults inquiries, what types of questions are being asked by primary care providers to psychiatrists via e-consults, and what questions and which diagnoses result in a recommendation for in-person evaluations by psychiatrists. The study found that certain diagnoses and question types appear to influence…
Read MoreE-Consult for Rural Neurology
A new study explores he demand for neurology services at Geisinger, which exceeds the current clinical capacity. The utility of Ask-a-Doc (AAD), an electronic medical record-based interface developed at Geisinger to facilitate communication between primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists, was implemented and assessed. It was found that AAD provides an interface between PCPs and…
Read MoreE-Consult Shown to Improve Access to Respirologists
A manuscript published in the International Journal of Quality Health Care titled, “Improving Primary Care Access to Respirologists Using eConsult” describes the findings from a retrospective review of 26,679 respirology eConsults. The publication details the most common topics and the most common types of questions asked by PCPs. The analysis found that in 23% of…
Read MoreStudy Finds E-Consult an Effective tool for Pain Management
The recent retrospective cohort study, “Clinical Effectiveness of an Outpatient Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management Telementoring Service,” published in the Clinical Journal of Pain, demonstrates the effectiveness of e-consult in reducing opioid use. The pain e-consult program (PEP) used in the study is a multidisciplinary telementoring service based on the ECHO model. The findings indicate that…
Read MoreEvaluation of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Electronic Consultation Use in Primary Care
The use of e-consult has emerged as a useful tool for primary care providers (PCPs) to quickly obtain non-urgent, patient-specific, expert advice from specialists. The COVID-19 pandemic forced health systems to rapidly implement and scale telehealth alternatives to in-person care to prevent exposure to the contagious respiratory virus. A recent study from Massachusetts General Hospital…
Read MoreE-Consult: An Opportunity for Financial and Operational Innovation
Catalyst, a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publication, released a case study titled E-Consult Innovation: A Middle-Ground Model To Enhance Adoption and Improve Care. This study tested the efficacy of alternative operational and financial models for e-Consult. HealthPartners designed a vertically integrated system that engaged third-party payers and implemented an in-house method to compensate specialists and primary care…
Read MoreJuly 2020 E-Consult Workgroup Webinar
This month’s webinar started with presentations by Grace Song, MD, CA Correctional Health Services Deputy Medical Executive and Stanley Frencher, Jr., MD, CEO of HubMD on increased e-consult use for correctional healthcare since the COVID-19 surge. Then Aasta Thielke, MPH from the Center for Evidence-Based Policy, gave a detailed presentation on the research methods and conclusions of…
Read MoreeConsults: A Triple Win for Patients, Clinicians and Payers (Milbank Foundation)
Milbank Foundation-supported literature review of successful e-consult programs. https://www.milbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/eConsults_Milbank_Report_v4.pdf
Read MorePandemic Changes what Doctor’s Visits Look Like
In this opinion piece, Dr. Barnett argues that fewer visits caused by the pandemic is a much needed and welcome change in managing patients’ healthcare. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/after-pandemic-visiting-doctor-will-never-be-same-thats-fine/
Read MorePatients Assess an eConsult Model’s Acceptability at 5 US Academic Medical Centers (UC San Francisco)
UCSF assessment of patient acceptance of e-consult in academic medical centers across the US. https://www.annfammed.org/content/18/1/35.full
Read MoreLA County Maternal Mental Health E-Consult Pilot: Provider Willingness and IT Challenges
E-Consult supports women struggling with maternal mental health needs. Access PDF article here:
Read MoreNorth County Health Services and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan Collaborate to Bring Safety Net Patients High-Quality Care
A California Medi-Cal managed care plan demonstrates support for an FQHC e-consult program.
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