Incorporating Telehealth Into the MS Care Model: Marisa McGinley, DO

WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

“When we think about MS care, the MS clinician will often kind of quarterback a lot of those [facets of management], but all of those other comprehensive care aspects are equally important to really thinking about our MS patients as a whole.”

The use of telehealth has blossomed in the medical field since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, almost 2 full years in, it has been folded into the clinical care model at a number of major institutions. For patients who require complex, comprehensive care—like those with multiple sclerosis (MS)—a telemedicine approach offers several advantages, ranging from increasing access to providers to economic savings from less required travel.

Although there are still challenges in reimbursement and coverage that need to be addressed for telehealth to permanently make its way into the care paradigm, the early signs suggest that it certainly has a place. In a recent Institutional Perspectives in Neurology: Multiple Sclerosis event, Marisa McGinley, DO, staff neurologist, Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, Cleveland Clinic, gave a talk on the use of telehealth for the MS patient population, offering up clinical experience and what literature is currently available that suggests its benefit for patients.

In a conversation with NeurologyLive, McGinley gave an overview of this talk. She shared her insight into the gaps in care that it might be able to fill and spoke to the need for further research to be done looking into its use in the clinic. Additional data would help to identify the best way to optimize the use of telehealth, she noted, adding that despite the need for physical exams, there are plenty of opportunities to utilize telehealth to reduce the burdens associated with in-office visits.

For more coverage the Institutional Perspectives in Neurology: Multiple Sclerosis events, click here.