Tag Archive for: telemedicine tips

How MPN Patients Can Best Prepare for a Telemedicine Visit

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How MPN Patients Can Best Prepare for a Telemedicine Visit from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are some ways that myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients can best prepare for telemedicine visits? Lisa Hatfield shares information about telemedicine, and MPN patient Summer Golden and care partner Jeff Bushnell share their tips for telemedicine best practices.

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Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

After the extensive use of it during the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like telemedicine will be here to stay. It’s another technological advantage that people living with MPNs can put in their toolbox. Since MPNs are classified as a rare disease, and there might be a lack of doctors knowledgeable on how to treat it near you, telemedicine has made it easier to connect with MPN specialists via online consults. Telemedicine can include video or audio only, and you should receive instructions how to set up and what to expect prior to your appointment. 

Listen as MPN patient, Jeff Bushnell and his care partner, Summer Golden, share how they prepare for telemedicine visits 

Summer Golden and Jeff Bushnell:

A top tip I think, it’s sort of logical, but is to have the questions and issues written out because it’s a limited matter of time and to specifically jot down the answers. Another tip would be to ensure that you have the appropriate stuff on whatever device you’re using to talk to the doctor on. We’ve used about three or four different apps, as it were, on our phone to communicate with different doctors, and you need to make sure that that works ahead of time.

Usually, the way they do it is they set up the appointment, they contact you ahead of time, and make sure that it’s going to work before they put the doctor online. But that’s very important that you have the technical ability to ensure that your equipment can support telemedicine. They’re making it pretty easy, but you still have to do it.

Lisa Hatfield:

Follow these two tips from Summer and Jeff as part of what YOU do to be ready for your next telemedicine visit. If you are having trouble with the technology needed for telemedicine, be sure to reach out to your doctor, nurse, or care partner for assistance. 

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MPN Patient and Care Partner Tips for Utilizing Telemedicine

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MPN Patient and Care Partner Tips for Utilizing Telemedicine from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Myelofibrosis patient Summer Golden and care partner Jeff Bushnell have learned the ins and outs of telemedicine. Watch as they share some advantages of virtual visits, instances when in-person visits are used for MPN monitoring, and their tips for optimizing telemedicine visits.

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Transcript:

Jeff Bushnell:

We are very fortunate to live in San Diego here where there are major medical centers and research universities and so on, but a lot of people aren’t… and these MPNs are very, very rare diseases. And there are not a lot of doctors that specialize in them, so telemedicine will allow you to contact a specialist.

I know when we see the Summer’s doctor in-person, she does a physical exam specifically to check her spleen size, which is an important aspect of almost all of these MPNs and without the ability to do that the doctor is working all solely from blood counts.

Summer Golden:

It’s just like Zoom, it’ll never go away, and I do believe telemedicine will be here forever, another technical advantage.

Jeff Bushnell:

I think, especially after COVID, people are more used to telemedicine, and in the MPN community anyway, because of the lack of large numbers of doctors that know much about it, like telemedicine will open up sort of a new, a new type of being able to treat MPNs, just because more people will be able to contact specialists.

Summer Golden:

A top tip I think, it’s sort of logical, but is to have the questions and issues written out because it’s a limited matter of time and to specifically jot down the answers.

Jeff Bushnell:

Another tip would be to ensure that you have the appropriate stuff on whatever device you’re using to talk to the doctor on. We’ve used about three or four different apps as it were on our phone to communicate with different doctors, and you need to make sure that that works ahead of time. Usually, the way they do it is they set up the appointment, they contact you ahead of time, and make sure that it’s going to work before they put the doctor online. But that’s very important that you have the technical ability to ensure that your equipment can support telemedicine. They’re making it pretty easy, but you still have to do it.

Tips for a Telemedicine Visit From a Head and Neck Cancer Expert

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Tips for a Telemedicine Visit From a Head and Neck Cancer Expert from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can head and neck cancer patients prepare for telemedicine visits? Watch as expert Dr. Samantha Tam from Henry Ford Health System shares her tips for telemedicine best practices and tests that can be helpful used in conjunction with virtual care.

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Transcript:

Samantha Tam, MD, FRCSC, MPH: 

So in head and neck cancer, a lot of the virtual visits are mainly based on obtaining a clinical history and having a discussion with your provider verbally as opposed to a lot of physical examination, this is unfortunately the limit of virtual care, and definitely, especially in head and neck cancer, a lot of our examination is through into your ears, into your nose, into your mouth with endoscopic examinations weaved into it, and definitely like CT scans are useful as a modality, as a modality of investigation to have ready prior to your visit with your head and neck cancer provider. Tips that I have for families and for patients that are facing a diagnosis of head and neck cancer before your virtual visit is to make sure that you have any kind of questions that you have written down so that you can make sure that your provider is able to go through each one of these questions to ensure that you have a good understanding of exactly what the next steps are, or what the diagnosis is and what the plan might be moving forward. 

An MPN Expert’s Top Three Tips for a Telemedicine Visit

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An MPN Expert’s Top Three Tips for a Telemedicine Visit from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

As a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patient, what steps can be taken to prepare for telemedicine visits? Expert Dr. Jamile Shammo from Rush University Medical Center provides her key tips to help ensure an optimal telehealth visit. 

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Transcript:

Dr. Jamile Shammo: 

When preparing for a televisit, I think it’s so important to know whether or not you would have a connectivity issue. A lot of times I’m trying to connect with the patient and then we realize that their phone isn’t equipped to handle the televisit and that is kind of disappointing to find that out a minute before you try to connect then that visit becomes a telephone encounter, which is again, less satisfying for some patients. I mean it does the job, but again, it doesn’t provide me with the exam…part of the exam that I’d like to do, at least in that way. So, I think prepare yourself and make sure that your device is able to connect and actually most clinics will have a person that may be able to help you navigate through the televisit pieces that would help you get through and connect with the provider, and then obviously with an MPN or any other visit, patient with a heme malignancy, it would be helpful to make sure that you have a blood draw or if your physician would like to have a blood draw in my case, I always like to have a CBC beforehand or perhaps a chemistry or maybe ion studies or what have you, to have that so that there will be something to discuss and make sure that your physician has had those results before you have the visit. 

Sometimes it is also disappointing that the patient thinks I’ve received those results when I actually haven’t and I have no control over that, so that would be the other piece. All of us do our best so that we can make sure that all those pieces are in place so that we can conduct the visit. And I know it’s a lot of work on everybody’s part. But in the end, what matters is that we are providing the best care possible in those very challenging times.