Trend: Teleneurology tech use accelerating

Right now, only a few dozen hospitals use remote neurologists to treat patients. Those that do, however, are seeing good results. For example, when Martha's Vineyard Hospital signed up for the TeleStroke program [1] offered by two Boston teaching hospitals, they got full access to elite neurologists for only $10,000. Another teleneurology service, Specialists on Call, charges hospitals by size. For example, it's assessing 143-bed Wellington Regional Medical Center in Wellington, Fla. a fee of $400 a day and a $40,000 installation fee.

The number of hospitals signing up for such programs is likely to grow quickly over coming years, as the technology becomes better known and neurologists reject going on-call at individual hospitals. That's particularly the case given that neurologists don't typically need to perform procedures, but rather, make decisions by talking with the patient and reading CT scans.

To learn more about these programs:
- read this Palm Beach Post article [2]

Related Article:
Kansas City -based system adds teleneurology to its growing program. Report [3]