(Press-News.org) March 10, 2023 – The rapid transition from in-person to care to telemedicine visits at the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic did not adversely affect the quality of care – and even improved some aspects of care – for patients with major depression in a major integrated health system, according to a new report. The study appears as part of a special "Virtual Visits" supplement to Medical Care, published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
"A rapid shift to virtual behavioral health care was possible without compromising health care-related practices," according to the new research, led by Nancy S. Weinfield, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente (KP) Mid-Atlantic Permanente Research Institute, Rockville, Md. The study is one of 10 original research papers examining the implementation and impact of telemedicine in the new supplement, sponsored by KP.
New research on telemedicine implementation in health care systems
In March 2020, health care systems across the United States rapidly pivoted from in-person appointments to virtual visits via telemedicine. While many providers had been building their telemedicine capabilities, the unprecedented shift to virtual visits during the pandemic had the potential to disrupt care practices and outcomes – perhaps especially in vulnerable patient groups.
The new studies look at how the shift to telemedicine affected the quality, utilization, and patient experience of care. "The supplemental issue of Medical Care aims to advance evidence about how health care organizations and systems can best support telemedicine implementation," according to an introduction by Guest Editor Hector P. Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, of University of California, Berkeley.
Seven papers assess the implementation of telemedicine within three regions of the KP system, examining trends in telemedicine utilization, and comparing the impact of telemedicine and in-person visits on conditions including urinary tract infections, neck and back pain, and depression. Other studies focus on vulnerable populations, including Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and patients receiving care in community health centers – highlighting telemedicine's role in maintaining continuity of primary care and the quality of diabetes care.
Virtual visits persist for major depression, and some aspects of care improve
In their study, Dr. Weinfield and colleagues looked at how the shift to virtual visits in the KP system affected care for patients with depression. The researchers analyzed electronic health record data on nearly 29,000 first telemedicine follow-up behavioral health visits by patients diagnosed with major depression.
Two of three KP regions showed small but significant reductions in prescriptions for antidepressant medications during the peak pandemic shift to virtual care (April to June 2020), after adjustment for patient characteristics. However, medication orders returned to pre-pandemic levels during the recovery period, beginning in the summer of 2020. Prescription fulfillment rates were unchanged between the three periods.
Meanwhile, rates of patient completion of depression symptom screening tools increased significantly in all three regions during the peak pandemic period, and continued to increase during the recovery period. "The transition and subsequent adjustment period have instead been marked by improved adherence to measurement-based care practices in virtual visits, signaling a potential new capacity for virtual health care delivery," the researchers write.
In contrast to the conditions evaluated in other KP studies, behavioral health for major depression continued to be delivered predominantly through telemedicine during the pandemic recovery period. Dr. Weinfield and coauthors conclude: "Within these three regions of KP, the fact that care has not rebounded to include substantial in-person visits suggests that virtual visits have proven to be a successful model for providers and patients."
Read [Health-care–Related Practices in Virtual Behavioral Health Treatment for Major Depression Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic]
Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.
###
About Medical Care
Rated as one of the top ten journals in health care administration, Medical Care is devoted to all aspects of the administration and delivery of health care. This scholarly journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers documenting the most current developments in the rapidly changing field of health care. Medical Care provides timely reports on the findings of original investigations into issues related to the research, planning, organization, financing, provision, and evaluation of health services. In addition, numerous special supplementary issues that focus on specialized topics are produced with each volume. Medical Care is the official journal of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association.
About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.
Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of €4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
END
From steering a car to swinging a tennis racket, we learn to execute all kinds of skilled movements during our lives. You might think this learning is only implemented by neurons, but a new study by researchers at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT shows the essential role of another brain cell type: astrocytes.
Just as teams of elite athletes train alongside staffs of coaches, ensembles of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex depend on nearby astrocytes to help them learn to encode when and how to move, and the ...
The tissue area that surrounds our teeth is known as the gingiva, and healthy teeth will nestle firmly into the gums thanks to the many gingival fibers that connect the tooth to the gingiva. The gingiva is home to fibroblasts - cells that contribute to the formation of connective tissue. A group of scientists from Tohoku University have discovered that the gingiva stiffness influences the properties of gingival fibroblasts, which in turn affects whether inflammation is likely to occur and make gingival fibers difficult to form.
Their findings were published in the journal Scientific ...
The deep sea is one of the least well-known areas on Earth, comprising multiple vulnerable ecosystems that play critical roles in the carbon cycle. However, the deep sea is directly exposed to the effects of human-induced climate change and may now face additional challenges arising from efforts to counteract climate change artificially. These efforts have evolved into geoengineering solutions that could operate on vast spatial scales.
Ocean-based climate interventions (OBCIs) are increasingly claimed as promising solutions to mitigate climate change. These interventions use different technologies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and sequester the carbon ...
Digitalisation, one of the megatrends of the future, has arrived in the world of dentistry. Modern technologies underpin precision applications while also making treatments less invasive for patients. At the beginning of June 2023, an international congress will bring dentistry experts from all over Europe to Vienna to discuss the broad range of application options opened up by the latest breakthroughs.
The University Clinic of Dentistry Vienna is a renowned international innovation driver, especially ...
Did you know that bacteria can hide their antimicrobial resistance? Much like storing military defence equipment without revealing it to the enemy, bacteria can mask their ability to resist antimicrobials. This hidden antimicrobial resistance can pass under the radar and cause treatment failure in patients.
A recent study published by researchers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway sheds light on this “hidden resistance”. The researchers describe that this phenomenon is often so rare that you cannot detect it through traditional testing methods, ...
Physicists from around the world will meet to present new research that spans from quarks to the cosmos at the American Physical Society’s (APS) April Meeting. The conference will be held in person in Minneapolis April 15-18 and online everywhere April 24-26.
Scientific Program
The scientific program includes more than 1,400 presentations on astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, gravitation, nuclear physics and more. For more information, search the scientific program. All times are in U.S. Central time.
Hybrid Format
The April Meeting will have ...
Rapid access to information is one of the largest barriers we have to deal with as a group of people in the Internet Age. Earth Map is a free application designed to be easily used and accessible to anyone with an internet connection and the desire to observe any environment at any time, with zero expertise (or travel) required.
This new tool features an intuitive point-and-click way of interfacing with the program, lending further to its ease of use.
The researchers published their results on January 12th in the Journal of Remote Sensing.
The authors underline the importance of ...
Link to Google Drive folder containing images with caption and credit information:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ye7QXkoTHfq7L4qEcJ33r6I6w7aB2-Mn?usp=share_link
In the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the plight of southern resident orcas. Annual counts show that population numbers, already precarious, have fallen back to mid-1970s levels. Most pregnancies end in miscarriage or death of the newborn. They may not be catching enough food. And many elderly orcas — ...
Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common pregnancy complication with significant health risks for both mother and offspring
Gestational diabetes is rising fast and is now 7.8% of all births in U.S.
Mother with gestational diabetes has increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and dementia; offspring more likely to have obesity and hypertensio
CHICAGO --- Pregnant persons should dim the lights in their home and turn off or at least dim their screens (computer monitors and smartphones) a few hours before ...
Near the small harbour of Estellencs at the northeast of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), a pebbly beach can be found at the base of an impressive scarp that threatens rockfall. Remains of plants, crustaceans, insects, and fish have been discovered in the grey-blue rock layers formed from sediments deposited 247 million years ago. Fossils in these rocks are of great interest since they offer a window into the time where the planet was recovering from the greatest mass extinction.
A few years ago, Mallorcan ...
