Utility of Deep Brain Stimulation Telemedicine for Patients With Movement Disorders During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China

Chencheng Zhang, Kaiwen Zhu, Zhengyu Lin, Peng Huang, Yixin Pan, Bomin Sun, Dianyou Li, Chencheng Zhang, Kaiwen Zhu, Zhengyu Lin, Peng Huang, Yixin Pan, Bomin Sun, Dianyou Li

Abstract

Objective: To explore the utility of deep brain stimulation (DBS) telemedicine in the management of patients with movement disorders from January 2019 to March 2020, covering the main period of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.

Materials and methods: We obtained data from 40 hospitals around China that employed DBS tele-programming for their outpatients with Parkinson's disease or dystonia from January 2019 to March 2020. Data were obtained on the number and nature of patients' DBS health care service requests, reasons for their requests, the number of DBS telemedicine sessions subsequently completed, safety issues, and the patients' satisfaction with the DBS tele-programing parameter adjustments made.

Results: There were 909 DBS tele-programming health service requests (from 196 patients) completed during the study period. The results showed: 1) the number of DBS telemedicine sessions requested and the number of patients examined increased during the COVID-19 outbreak in February and March 2020 when compared with the monthly numbers in 2019; 2) the most common reason for the patients' health service requests was poor symptom control; 3) the most common DBS tele-programming adjustment made was voltage change; 4) overall, most (89%) DBS tele-programming adjustment sessions were experienced by the patients as satisfactory; and 5) significant adverse events and unexpected treatment interruptions caused by connection failure or other hardware- or software-related problems did not occur.

Conclusions: DBS telemedicine could have a unique role to play in maintaining the delivery of DBS treatment and medical care to outpatients with movement disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; deep brain stimulation; movement disorders; patient satisfaction; telemedicine.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

© 2020 The Authors. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Neuromodulation Society.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monthly number of DBS tele-programming sessions completed from January 2019 to March 2020. Note: Dashed line illustrates the average monthly number of DBS telemedicine sessions during 2019; arrow indicates the onset of the implementation of protective measures against the COVID-19 outbreak. [Color figure can be viewed at www.neuromodulationjournal.com]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Patient satisfaction and type of DBS tele-programming parameter adjustments (with standard error of the mean). [Color figure can be viewed at www.neuromodulationjournal.com]

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Source: PubMed

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