Future neurohospitalist: teleneurohospitalist.
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Date
2013-08-28
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Abstract
Despite the growing demand for emergency neurological evaluations and neurohospitalists the supply of neurologists remains relatively fixed over time Telemedicine is a unique tool that has the ability to put a medical specialist like a neurologist in 2 places in a relatively short period of time expanding expertise in many rural and in some underserved urban facilities that would ordinarily be devoid of such expertise Teleneurology is a branch of telemedicine that consults and practices through remote neurological evaluation Telestroke is defined as remote stroke evaluation The demand for timely neurological evaluation especially acute stroke evaluation and treatment with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator IV rtPA continues to fuel the growth of neurohospitalists telestroke and teleneurology services Remote rural or underserved urban emergency departments and hospitals which are unable to successfully recruit a neurologist or neurohospitalist to provide this service are uniquely suited to a teleneurology option The number of private practices and academic centers providing telestroke services has grown significantly in the past decade with continued growth expected We describe the benefits and drawbacks of teleneurology telestroke as well as other practical aspects for the teleneurohospitalist