Featured Resources
E-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 MoreCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services Support for E-Consult Reimbursement
In December, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Virginia Medicaid (Department of Medical Assistance Services) met with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to discuss Medicaid’s payment policies with a focus on new concerns that have been raised in some states about the ability of Medicaid to provide a federal match for…
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 MoreSpecialist Electronic Consult Performance
Study shows that pandemic has shed light on clinicians’ commitment to professionalism and service as we rapidly adapt to changing paradigms. Interventions that appeal to professional norms can help improve the efficacy of new systems of practice. We show that specialists’ performance can be measured and improved with feedback using aspirational norms.
Read MorePediatric Dermatology E-Consults Found to be Effective and Well-Received
A recently published paper in the Journal of Pediatric Dermatology assessed electronic health records of pediatric patients referred through e-Consults at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1/13/2020 to 7/17/2020 and reviewed confidential surveys taken by pediatricians and parents to assess receptiveness. The results of the study support the use of e-consult for pediatric dermatology and indicate that…
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 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 MoreE-Consult Associated with Increased Access to Safety Net Specialty Care
A recent study published in JAMA Health Forum analyzes 50,260 referral requests submitted during the year before and the year after e-consult implementation at 19 H+H specialty clinics in New York City. Researchers found that following e-consult implementation, 13% of referral requests were resolved electronically. Additionally, the percent of successfully scheduled in-person appointments increased 15.8%…
Read MoreAddiction Medicine and Smartphone-Based E-Consult During the COVID-19 Lockdown
A recent study illustrated how the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Digital Academy, Bangalore, with the collaboration of Project ECHO worked throughout the pandemic to develop capacity for substance abuse disorder (SUD) management through telehealth, training over six thousand five hundred health care providers. The Centre of Addiction Medicine, NIMHANS initiated an…
Read MoreImpact of Pediatric Electronic Consultations in a Federally Qualified Health Center
In this study of patients referred to pediatric cardiology, endocrinology or pulmonology at a federally qualified health center, the use of e-consults combined with evidence-based referral guidelines provided a useful tool to help front line pediatric primary care providers manage complex problems and identify those not needing to see a specialist in person. As a result, twenty-three…
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 MoreMajor Cost Savings Associated with VHA E-Consults
A study across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) shows that e-consults improve access to specialty care, shorten wait times, and reduce outpatient visits. Across 11 specialties, patients receiving an e-consult had significantly lower health care costs compared with patients receiving a face-to-face consultation. This was largely driven by differences in outpatient costs. Patients receiving an e-consult had…
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 MoreTelehealth as a Bright Spot of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Recommendations From the Virtual Frontlines (Ohio State University)
Ohio State University shares how e-consult was fast-tracked to support care during the pandemic. https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e19045/
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