SynthesisNeurosurgery2020
Telemedicine in Neurosurgery: Lessons Learned from a Systematic Review of the Literature for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond.
Synthesis in Neurosurgery, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Challenges of Telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2022Pooled it
- Telemedicine technologies and applications in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review.Health informatics journalPooled it
- Overcoming barriers to neurosurgical care with technology and innovation.BMC global and public health · 2026Review
- Structural equation modeling of findings in pediatric tele-neuroradiology: a 2-year nationwide study of turnaround time predictors and clinical decision support.Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery · 2026Article
- From Crisis Response to Lasting Transformation: Five-Year Insights from the Implementation of Telemedicine in Neurosurgical Care During COVID-19.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Navigating neurosurgical care in low- and middle-income countries from Africa: a narrative review of barriers and facilitators.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Review
- Global perspective of neurosurgery practice in lower middle-income countries: challenges, opportunities, and the path forward.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Article
- The transformative power of telemedicine in delivering effective neurosurgical care in low and middle-income countries: A review.Brain & spine · 2025Review
- Telemedicine in Follow-up after Spine Surgery: Need of the Hour.Asian journal of neurosurgery · 2024Article
- How Informal Carers Support Video Consulting in Physiotherapy, Heart Failure, and Cancer: Qualitative Study Using Linguistic Ethnography.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Nurse Navigator Support for Patients During Telehealth Neurosurgery Clinics.Journal of patient experience · 2024Article
- The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global neurosurgery collaborations.World neurosurgery: X · 2024Article
- Challenges of Teleneurology in the Care of Complex Neurodegenerative Disorders: The Case of Parkinson's Disease with Possible Solutions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Direction of Neurosurgery to Overcome the Living with COVID-19 Era : The Possibility of Telemedicine in Neurosurgery.Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society · 2023Article
- Outcomes of Telestroke Inter-Hospital Transfers Among Intervention and Non-Intervention Patients.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2023Article
- Letter to editor regarding: "Usability of telehealth among healthcare providers during COVID-19 pandemic in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq".Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Parental Satisfaction from Telemedicine in the Follow-up of Children Operated for Craniosynostosis during COVID-19 Pandemic.The Cleft palate-craniofacial journal : official publication of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association · 2023Article
- Process improvement using telemedicine consultation to prevent unnecessary interfacility transfers for low-severity blunt head trauma.BMJ open quality · 2023Article
- Letter to Editor Regarding : "The Direction of Neurosurgery to Overcome the Living with COVID-19 Era : The Possibility of Telemedicine in Neurosurgery".Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society · 2023Article
- The use of telemedicine in pre-surgical evaluation: a retrospective cohort study of a neurosurgical oncology practice.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvolving requirements for patient and physician safety and rapid regulatory changes have stimulated interest in neurosurgical telemedicine in the COVID-19 era.
objectiveTo conduct a systematic literature review investigating treatment of neurosurgical patients via telemedicine, and to evaluate barriers and challenges. Additionally, we review recent regulatory changes that affect telemedicine in neurosurgery, and our institution's initial experience.
methodsA systematic review was performed including all studies investigating success regarding treatment of neurosurgical patients via telemedicine. We reviewed our department's outpatient clinic billing records after telemedicine was implemented from 3/23/2020 to 4/6/2020 and reviewed modifier 95 inclusion to determine the number of face-to-face and telemedicine visits, as well as breakdown of weekly telemedicine clinic visits by subspecialty.
resultsA total of 52 studies (25 prospective and 27 retrospective) with 45 801 patients were analyzed. A total of 13 studies were conducted in the United States and 39 in foreign countries. Patient management was successful via telemedicine in 99.6% of cases. Telemedicine visits failed in 162 cases, 81.5% of which were due to technology failure, and 18.5% of which were due to patients requiring further face-to-face evaluation or treatment. A total of 16 studies compared telemedicine encounters to alternative patient encounter mediums; telemedicine was equivalent or superior in 15 studies. From 3/23/2020 to 4/6/2020, our department had 122 telemedicine visits (65.9%) and 63 face-to-face visits (34.1%). About 94.3% of telemedicine visits were billed using face-to-face procedural codes.
conclusionNeurosurgical telemedicine encounters appear promising in resource-scarce times, such as during global pandemics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.