Making a Traditional Spine Surgery Clinic Telemedicine-Ready in the "New Normal" of Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Abstract

An original article describing a comprehensive methodology for making a traditional spine surgery clinic telemedicineready in terms of logistical considerations and workflow. The aim of this study is to promote the use of telemedicine via videoconferencing to reduce human exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and reduce the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission at outpatient clinics. The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest healthcare crisis in the 21st century. Until a vaccine is developed or herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is achieved, social distancing to avoid crowding is an important strategy to reduce disease transmission and resurgence. Telemedicine has already been applied in the field of orthopedics with encouraging results. We reviewed the evidence behind telemedicine and described our clinical protocol, patient selection criteria, and workflow for telemedicine. We discussed a simple methodology to convert pre-existing traditional clinic resources into telemedicine tools, along with future challenges. Our methodology was successfully and easily applied in our clinical practice, with a streamlined workflow allowing our spine surgery service to implement telemedicine as a consultation modality in line with the national recommendations of social distancing. Telemedicine was well incorporated into our outpatient practice using the above workflow. We believe that the use of telemedicine via videoconferencing can become part of the new normal and a safe strategy for healthcare systems as both a medical and an economic countermeasure against COVID-19.