Neil H. Baum, MD, presented “Telemedicine for Seniors” for the Grand Rounds in Urology audience in April, 2020.
After viewing these presentations, be sure to vote below on how confident you feel using telemedicine.
How to cite: Baum, Neil H. “Telemedicine for Seniors” April, 2020. Accessed Apr 2024. https://grandroundsinurology.com/telemedicine-for-seniors/
Telemedicine for Seniors – Summary:
Neil H. Baum, MD, Professor of Clinical Urology at Tulane Medical School, discusses how much COVID-19 has changed the demand for telemedicine, particularly for seniors who are considered more at-risk, and therefore need to avoid clinical visits as much as possible. Dr. Baum highlights a secondary motivator for the increased use of telemedicine: there is a shortage of urologists, particularly in rural areas, which can be addressed with telemedicine. Conventional wisdom used to hold that older patients were not amenable to telemedicine because of technology barriers. Dr. Baum introduces solutions, including triangulation, in which telemedicine is facilitated by having a third person in the room. He also explains how to prepare senior patients for these visits, as well as his six steps for creating a successful virtual visit. He notes that it is imperative that the instructions are short, to the point, and easy to follow. Finally, Dr. Baum emphasizes the importance of soliciting feedback on the experience from patients to improve their experience.
Q&A – Summary:
In this follow-up Q&A, Dr. Baum chats with E. David Crawford about the use of medical scribes for telemedicine visits, challenges of bill coding, and why telehealth visits require synchronous audio and video, as well as how seniors are surprisingly competent with technology (and workarounds for those who aren’t).
For other urology-focused information on the COVID-19 pandemic, visit our resource page.
