scholarly journals P.013 Needs assessment of rural telemedicine care for Parkinson disease in British Columbia

Author(s):  
DJ Peacock ◽  
PA Baumeister ◽  
A Monaghan ◽  
JE Siever ◽  
D Wile

Background: People with Parkinson disease (PD) face progressive mobility loss, but medical treatment is dependent on clinical assessment and examination. Regional patient and physician density patterns pose further problems to accessing care. Telehealth may improve access particularly among rural populations, but an approach to this problem should consider patient perspectives. Methods: We surveyed and conducted a focus group for people with PD and their caregivers. Questions assessed perceptions of barriers to neurological care and use of telehealth for PD management. Thematic analysis was performed to classify qualitative data. Results: 18 individuals completed the survey and 7 parties joined the focus group. 52% of participants travel >50km for neurologist appointments (range = 59 to 842km). Perceived barriers include cost and difficulty of travel, wait times, lack of interdisciplinary healthcare and deep brain stimulation outside large cities. 80% of participants (95% C.I. 64-96%) would likely or very likely use telehealth for follow-up neurologist appointments if proven as good as in-office visits. Participants associated telehealth with improved quality of care, improved access to care, and cost savings. Conclusions: This sample of people with PD and their caregivers report willingness to access care via telehealth to reduce perceived cost and travel for specialty care.

Author(s):  
Dakota Peacock ◽  
Peter Baumeister ◽  
Alex Monaghan ◽  
Jodi Siever ◽  
Joshua Yoneda ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT:Regional patient and physician density patterns pose problems to accessing care for people with Parkinson’s disease, though telehealth may improve access. We surveyed and conducted a focus group for people with Parkinson’s disease in Interior British Columbia regarding barriers to neurological care. Eighteen individuals completed the survey and seven parties joined the focus group. Perceived barriers include cost and difficulty of travel, wait times, and lack of specialized services outside large cities. 80% of participants (95% CI 64–96) would likely use telehealth for follow-up neurologist appointments. This sample of people with Parkinson’s disease reports willingness to use telehealth to reduce travel and improve access to specialty care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Lainiala ◽  
Mari Karsikas ◽  
Aleksi Reito ◽  
Antti Eskelinen

AbstractDue to the risk of adverse reactions to metal debris resulting from increased wear of the arthroplasty more than one million metal-on-metal (MoM) hip replacements worldwide are in active follow-up. Follow-up usually includes measurement of both whole blood cobalt (Co) and chromium (Cr) concentrations. Our experience is that Cr is seldom independently elevated. We wanted to ascertain whether blood Cr measurements could be omitted from follow-up protocols without lowering the quality of follow-up. We identified 8438 whole blood Co and Cr measurements performed without or prior to revision surgery. When the cut-off levels 5 µg/L and 7 µg/L were used, Cr was independently elevated in only 0.5% (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.3 to 0.6) and 0.2% (CI 0.1 to 0.3) of the measurements. The models with continuous variables showed that the higher the blood metal concentrations are the lower the percentage of measurements with Cr higher than Co. Our results suggest that whole blood Cr is very rarely independently elevated and therefore the authorities should consider omitting Cr measurements from their screening guidelines of MoM hip replacements. We believe this change in practice would simplify follow-up and lead to cost savings without decreasing the quality of follow-up.


Neurology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 89 (19) ◽  
pp. 1944-1950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Brodsky ◽  
Shannon Anderson ◽  
Charles Murchison ◽  
Mara Seier ◽  
Jennifer Wilhelm ◽  
...  

Objective:To compare motor and nonmotor outcomes at 6 months of asleep deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson disease (PD) using intraoperative imaging guidance to confirm electrode placement vs awake DBS using microelectrode recording to confirm electrode placement.Methods:DBS candidates with PD referred to Oregon Health & Science University underwent asleep DBS with imaging guidance. Six-month outcomes were compared to those of patients who previously underwent awake DBS by the same surgeon and center. Assessments included an “off”-levodopa Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) II and III, the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire, motor diaries, and speech fluency.Results:Thirty participants underwent asleep DBS and 39 underwent awake DBS. No difference was observed in improvement of UPDRS III (+14.8 ± 8.9 vs +17.6 ± 12.3 points, p = 0.19) or UPDRS II (+9.3 ± 2.7 vs +7.4 ± 5.8 points, p = 0.16). Improvement in “on” time without dyskinesia was superior in asleep DBS (+6.4 ± 3.0 h/d vs +1.7 ± 1.2 h/d, p = 0.002). Quality of life scores improved in both groups (+18.8 ± 9.4 in awake, +8.9 ± 11.5 in asleep). Improvement in summary index (p = 0.004) and subscores for cognition (p = 0.011) and communication (p < 0.001) were superior in asleep DBS. Speech outcomes were superior in asleep DBS, both in category (+2.77 ± 4.3 points vs −6.31 ± 9.7 points (p = 0.0012) and phonemic fluency (+1.0 ± 8.2 points vs −5.5 ± 9.6 points, p = 0.038).Conclusions:Asleep DBS for PD improved motor outcomes over 6 months on par with or better than awake DBS, was superior with regard to speech fluency and quality of life, and should be an option considered for all patients who are candidates for this treatment.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier:NCT01703598.Classification of evidence:This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PD undergoing DBS, asleep intraoperative CT imaging–guided implantation is not significantly different from awake microelectrode recording–guided implantation in improving motor outcomes at 6 months.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Diao ◽  
Yutong Bai ◽  
Tianqi Hu ◽  
Zixiao Yin ◽  
Huangguang Liu ◽  
...  

Pain from Parkinson's disease (PD) is a non-motor symptom affecting the quality of life and has prevalence of 20–80%. However, it is unclear whether subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN–DBS), a well-established treatment for PD, is effective forPD-related pain. Thus, the objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of STN-DBS on PD-related pain and explore how its duration affects the efficacy of STN-DBS. A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Nine studies included numerical rating scale (NRS), visual analog scale (VAS), or non-motor symptom scale (NMSS) scores at baseline and at the last follow-up visit and therefore met the inclusion criteria of the authors. These studies exhibited moderate- to high-quality evidence. Two reviewers conducted assessments for study eligibility, risk of bias, data extraction, and quality of evidence rating. Random effect meta-analysis revealed a significant change in PD-related pain as assessed by NMSS, NRS, and VAS (P &lt;0.01). Analysis of the short and long follow-up subgroups indicated delayed improvement in PD-related pain. These findings (a) show the efficacy of STN-DBS on PD-related pain and provide higher-level evidence, and (b) implicate delayed improvement in PD-related pain, which may help programming doctors with supplement selecting target and programming.Systematic Review Registration: This study is registered in Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/DNM6K).


2020 ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
Anjali Gera ◽  
Gian Pal

More than 50% of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) can have chronic pain. PD pain has been associated with reduced quality of life scores on validated measures. The most common source of PD pain is musculoskeletal in origin. This pain may manifest as rigidity, cramps, shoulder discomfort, spinal or hand and foot deformities, dystonic pain, or nonradicular back pain. Our case illustrates improvement in chronic pain following bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in a 45-year-old patient with PD. Approximately 1 year after PD onset, he developed constant pain and tremor in his left upper extremity, which gradually worsened over time. Initially, carbidopa/levodopa completely alleviated both his arm tremor and pain. Over the next several years, he developed off periods that were associated with bothersome tremor and pain, and on periods that were associated with prominent neck and left arm dyskinesia, both of which were associated with significant pain. At age 60 years, after 15 years of PD, he underwent bilateral STN DBS implantation. Following DBS, he had significant improvement in his left arm tremor, rigidity, motor fluctuations, and pain. He also had a 70% reduction in his dopaminergic medication and complete resolution of dyskinesia and neck pain.


Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. e1109-e1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.M. Michael Schuepbach ◽  
Lisa Tonder ◽  
Alfons Schnitzler ◽  
Paul Krack ◽  
Joern Rau ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo investigate predictors for improvement of disease-specific quality of life (QOL) after deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) for Parkinson disease (PD) with early motor complications.MethodsWe performed a secondary analysis of data from the previously published EARLYSTIM study, a prospective randomized trial comparing STN-DBS (n = 124) to best medical treatment (n = 127) after 2 years follow-up with disease-specific QOL (39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire summary index [PDQ-39-SI]) as the primary endpoint. Linear regression analyses of the baseline characteristics age, disease duration, duration of motor complications, and disease severity measured at baseline with the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) (UPDRS-III “off” and “on” medications, UPDRS-IV) were conducted to determine predictors of change in PDQ-39-SI.ResultsPDQ-39-SI at baseline was correlated to the change in PDQ-39-SI after 24 months in both treatment groups (p < 0.05). The higher the baseline score (worse QOL) the larger the improvement in QOL after 24 months. No correlation was found for any of the other baseline characteristics analyzed in either treatment group.ConclusionImpaired QOL as subjectively evaluated by the patient is the most important predictor of benefit in patients with PD and early motor complications, fulfilling objective gold standard inclusion criteria for STN-DBS. Our results prompt systematically including evaluation of disease-specific QOL when selecting patients with PD for STN-DBS.Clinicaltrials.gov identifierNCT00354133.


2018 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsinsue Chen ◽  
Zaman Mirzadeh ◽  
Kristina M. Chapple ◽  
Margaret Lambert ◽  
Holly A. Shill ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVERecent studies have shown similar clinical outcomes between Parkinson disease (PD) patients treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) under general anesthesia without microelectrode recording (MER), so-called “asleep” DBS, and historical cohorts undergoing “awake” DBS with MER guidance. However, few studies include internal controls. This study aims to compare clinical outcomes after globus pallidus internus (GPi) and subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS using awake and asleep techniques at a single institution.METHODSPD patients undergoing awake or asleep bilateral GPi or STN DBS were prospectively monitored. The primary outcome measure was stimulation-induced change in motor function off medication 6 months postoperatively, measured using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III). Secondary outcomes included change in quality of life, measured by the 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), change in levodopa equivalent daily dosage (LEDD), stereotactic accuracy, stimulation parameters, and adverse events.RESULTSSix-month outcome data were available for 133 patients treated over 45 months (78 GPi [16 awake, 62 asleep] and 55 STN [14 awake, 41 asleep]). UPDRS-III score improvement with stimulation did not differ between awake and asleep groups for GPi (awake, 20.8 points [38.5%]; asleep, 18.8 points [37.5%]; p = 0.45) or STN (awake, 21.6 points [40.3%]; asleep, 26.1 points [48.8%]; p = 0.20) targets. The percentage improvement in PDQ-39 and LEDD was similar for awake and asleep groups for both GPi (p = 0.80 and p = 0.54, respectively) and STN cohorts (p = 0.85 and p = 0.49, respectively).CONCLUSIONSIn PD patients, bilateral GPi and STN DBS using the asleep method resulted in motor, quality-of-life, and medication reduction outcomes that were comparable to those of the awake method.


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