Andre Machado, MD, PhD: The Physician Experience With Telemedicine

“The experience has been wonderful. Today, we are as comfortable seeing someone face to face… [as we are] seeing someone in video. My experience as the physician, and what the patients report to me as their experience, remains very good.”

Telemedicine has begun to alter the landscape of treatment for a number of conditions. In epilepsy, some experts, such as Imad Najm, MD, are expecting it to be a complete game-changer. He told NeurologyLive that “the physical confines of things are not going to be a limitation anymore. We're going to be able to reach out to the world, and the world will be able to reach out to us.”

Additionally, Andre Machado, MD, PhD, Institute Chair, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, has similar feelings regarding its use in movement disorders such as Parkinson disease or tremor. In a conversation with NeurologyLive, Machado detailed his experience with telemedicine, and the impact it has had on his practice. He noted that it has offered a similar experience to in-person visits, allowing for the maintenance of human contact and good interactions despite the difference.

He also offered his insight into his beliefs on the future use of telemedicine, particularly how it may be able to supplement current care. In movement disorders, the window for patients to benefit from a treatment like deep brain stimulation (DBS) is sometimes missed due to a lack of referral. The ability to have a virtual visit with a movement disorder specialist ahead of a referral may offer a chance to hit that window.