Delivering tertiary centre specialty care to ALS patients via telemedicine: a retrospective cohort analysis

AbstractObjective: This study was undertaken to determine if ALS patients evaluated via telemedicine received the same quality of care as patients evaluated by traditional face-to-face encounters.Methods: A retrospective cohort study design was used. Participants were patients diagnosed with ALS that received multidisciplinary care at the tertiary Cleveland VA ALS Centre between 1 March 2008- and 31 anuary 2015. Participants were not randomised, but chose telemedicine based on preference, disability level or distance from the clinic. Telemedicine in this study consisted of a video conferencing platform enabling remote rather than face-to-face encounters with participants.Results: There was no significant association between receiving quality ALS care and the mode of care. There was a trend for telemedicine patients to utilise home health care less often than those that received clinic care (AOR 0.50; 95% CI 0.16–1.59). There was no significant difference in survival time between the two groups (log-rank t...