Author: Rebecca Verdin

Puerto Rico Telehealth Symposium Held on Jan. 17

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Rebecca Verdin

Dr. Regan Stewart and Dr. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo from the MUSC COE presented at the Puerto Rico Telehealth Symposium on January 17th, 2024.  The symposium was hosted by the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC). Telehealth champions from the public sector, government, public/private hospital systems, clinics, emergency responders, academia, and researchers shared their efforts and formulated plans for expansion on the island of Puerto Rico in 2024.

Members from the MUSC Telehealth Center of Excellence Team Present at USCHA 2023

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Rebecca Verdin

Members from the MUSC COE team and SC DHEC team presented at the 2023 US Conference on HIV/AIDS held September 6-9 in DC! This year's theme was A Love Letter to Black Women, and DHEC's Rasia White noted, "It was truly inspiring and empowering, especially to see so many women who looked like me being recognized for navigating effective strategies for ending the HIV epidemic. I appreciated the transparency of women living with HIV as they shared their stories that at times exhibited feelings of despair, but ended with their sharing of resilience and triumph. I am encouraged, and I am refreshed to continue our innovative efforts on the road to ending the HIV epidemic!"

Dr. Marty Player (Associate Professor of Family Medicine, MUSC) presented on the team's work implementing a TelePrEP program in rural South Carolina.

Initiation and Evaluation of a Telemedicine Program for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (TelePrEP) in Rural South Carolina | Player, MD, MSCR; Diaz, MD, MSCR; Robinson, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC

 

Rasia White and Johnna Williams-Gardner (SC DHEC) presented on a pilot project for implementing electronic consent to enroll clients in DHEC's Data-to-Care program.

Piloting e-Consent for South Carolina's Data-to-Care Program | White, Gardner, Gaskin, Meissner, Kruis, Verdin, Tanyi

MUSC Implementation Science Telehealth Toolkit Published!

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Rebecca Verdin

Members from the interdisciplinary evaluation team of the MUSC Telehealth Center of Excellence (COE) recently published an implementation science telehealth toolkit. The purpose of this toolkit is to guide clinical and research teams in the development and conduct of dissemination and implementation evaluations for new and existing telehealth programs. The toolkit includes separate sections to match the steps in an implementation science research project or telehealth program evaluation and is intended to be utilized in dynamic fashion to meet changing health care needs. There are also links in the toolkit to external dissemination and implementation resources that can support these evaluations. Click Here to Access the Toolkit

CDC Publishes Field Note About MUSC’s Telestroke Program

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Rebecca Verdin

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention selected the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Center for Telehealth’s Telestroke Program to participate in an Evaluability Assessment (EA) conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. The EA was conducted as part of the selection process to be chosen to participate in a CDC-supported rigorous evaluation of MUSC’s telestroke strategy, which is currently underway and being conducted in collaboration with the MUSC COE team. Following the EA, the CDC published a field note showcasing an overview, program components, implementation, and the impact of MUSC’s Telestroke program.

Members from the MUSC Telehealth Center of Excellence Team presented findings at the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Rebecca Verdin

Members from the MUSC Telehealth Center of Excellence team presented findings at the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics held January 9-11 in Scottsdale, AZ. The theme of the conference was Upgrading the Pipeline from Health Data to Health Policy, providing the MUSC COE a unique opportunity to discuss methods for managing and analyzing telehealth data and using telehealth data to inform policy.

 

Ryan Kruis (Director, Research & Grants, Center for Telehealth) presented the team’s work using claims and administrative data to map utilization of healthcare services to guide strategic deployment of telehealth services to mitigate access to care issues.

Use of health care utilization heatmaps to inform statewide telehealth policy and expansion in South Carolina | Kruis, MSW; M. Dooley, PhD; A. Simpson, PhD; K. Simpson, DrPH; J. McElligott, MD, MSCR

 

Dr. Daniel Brinton (Assistant Professor, College of Health Professions) presented innovative methods for combining intensive care EHR data to aid outcome analysis. These methods have been used on a number of COE ICU projects.

Matching irregular EHR intensive care data to create an accurate & analyzable dataset | Brinton, PhD; A. Goodwin, MD, MSCR; Annie Simpson, PhD

 

Both presentations were met with great enthusiasm among conference participants, which included leading experts on the use of data and statistics to analyze and inform health policy.

MUSC remote patient monitoring team recognized at the American Academy of Nursing Health Policy Conference

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Rebecca Verdin

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Center for Telehealth team partnered with Stel Life, Inc. to present the results of their innovative “Not Home Alone:  A COVID-19 Post-Discharge Remote Patient Monitoring Pilot” program at the October 2022 American Academy of Nursing Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many hospitals, including the MUSC hospitals, to exceed capacity, delaying acute care for certain patients. MUSC’s multidisciplinary telehealth team designed a remote patient monitoring service that allowed COVID-19 patients with acute hypoxic failure requiring continued oxygen therapy to be safely discharged to home.  Over 50 patients used the Stel Vitals Hub to transit biometric data, including oxygen levels, twice a day to a nurse care manager.  Hospitalist physicians were immediately available to conduct tele-visits if needed.  Seventy-seven percent of the patients attended the 2-week post-discharge appointment with their primary care physician, and eighty-eight percent had already weaned off the oxygen at home.  This program also opened up inpatient and emergency department capacity, allowing MUSC to accommodate critically ill patients from surrounding communities during this time of hospital surge and limited bed availability.

You can view the poster presented at the American Academy of Nursing Health Policy Conference here.

---

The MUSC Center for Telehealth is recognized as one of only two Telehealth Centers of Excellence in the United States, awarded by the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA). MUSC was awarded this national designation in 2017 because of the Center's successful telehealth programs with a high annual volume of telehealth visits, substantial service to rural and medically underserved populations through telehealth, and its financially sustainable telehealth models. The role of the COE is to fill important knowledge gaps in the national telehealth landscape through research, regional and national collaborations, and proactive dissemination of telehealth resources. www.telehealthcoe.org

Stel Life offers its Vitals Hub and secure patented technology to transmit home biometric data directly to the patient’s electronic health record for review by care teams.  The Stel technology does not require Wi-Fi, apps or smart devices providing a frictionless home monitoring experience for both patients and the care team.  Stel has transmitted 2 million vital signs from the homes of individuals managing acute and chronic illness across the United States. www.stel.life