Published
2021-10-12
Issue
Section
Original Reports
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Anne-Taylor Beck, Leeandra B. Cleaver, Joshua D. Fuqua, Katlyn B. Clark, Rohit S. Nair, E. Paige Hart, Rebecca R. Bolinger, William J. Crump
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All work in JRMC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
A Teleneurology Teaching Service at a Rural Regional Campus
An Effective Solution When Specialty Availability is Limited
Anne-Taylor Beck
Leeandra B. Cleaver
Joshua D. Fuqua
Katlyn B. Clark
Rohit S. Nair
E. Paige Hart
Rebecca R. Bolinger
William J. Crump
Univeristy of Louisville School of Medicine Trover Campus at Baptist Health Madisonville
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jrmc.v4i3.3534
Keywords: rural regional campus, medical student, neurology, telemedicine, tele-neurology
Abstract
Regional rural medical school campuses offer many opportunities for medical students to gain more hands-on experience, have more direct interaction with attending physicians, and cultivate a deeper understanding of challenges and opportunities specific to rural medicine. Some specialty services such as neurology are not available at these small regional campuses, and telemedicine technology can be a valuable tool to address this need. We report the implementation of teleneurology stroke consultation services as part of the third-year neurology clerkship at a regional medical school campus. We analyzed daily clinical notes and student satisfaction surveys. Students saw many common and important presentations of cerebrovascular events. Students worked as part of a multi-disciplinary care team while following these patients through their hospital course with effective instruction provided by remote stroke neurologists. All students strongly agreed that telemedicine was a positive component of the clerkship. We conclude that teleneurology is an effective way to provide inpatient neurology clinical exposure, especially when remote attendings have a strong screen presence and are enthusiastic about teaching. We believe these findings could be useful to other campuses considering similar teaching methods, as innovations in telemedicine continue to address challenges in medical education and clinical care. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report and the Baptist Health Madisonville Institutional Review Board found this study to be exempt.
