Session Information
Session Title: Research Spotlight: General Rehabilitation
Session Time: None. Available on demand.
Disclosures: Derek H. Bui, DO: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of telemedicine. There is limited information that demonstrates if telemedicine affects medical decision making. This quality improvement study aims to demonstrate differences in ordering frequency of MRI lumbar spine for radicular symptoms between in-person and telemedicine visits.
Design: Retrospective cohort studyA total of 1322 patients with back pain were compiled from all the sites. The patients’ medical records were reviewed and only initial visits with radicular symptoms were included. Radicular symptoms were determined by reviewing the history of present illness and assessment and plan. With this criteria, there were 281 new consults diagnosed with radicular symptoms. Out of the 281 new consults, 212 were in-person and 69 were telemedicine. The 69 telemedicine visits involved 63 telephone visits and 6 video visits. The MRI lumbar spine ordering frequencies were reviewed for these 281 patients.Setting : Multi-campus outpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation clinicParticipants : Male and female veterans
Interventions: None
Main Outcome Measures: A comparison between in-person versus telemedicine ordering frequency of MRI lumbar spine for radicular symptoms
Results: 61 of the 212 (28.77%) in-person visits resulted in a MRI. 21 of the 69 (30.43%) telemedicine visits resulted in a MRI. Specifically, 18 of the 63 (28.12%) telephone visits and 3 of the 6 (50.00%) video visits resulted in a MRI.Conclusions: This is the first reported data, to our knowledge, that demonstrates the ordering frequency of MRI lumbar spine for radicular symptoms between in-person versus telemedicine visits. There was a minimal difference in ordering frequency between in-person (28.77%) versus telemedicine (30.43%) visits. This may suggest that telemedicine is a reasonable alternative to evaluate low back pain with radicular symptoms. Although a high percentage (50.00%) of video visits had MRIs ordered, this may be due to a small sample size.
Level of Evidence: Level IV
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Bui DH, Chang L, Rudd-Barnard G, Alano RE, Ashfaq M, Schulze DR. A Comparison Between In-person versus Telemedicine Ordering Frequency of MRI Lumbar Spine for Radicular Symptoms [abstract]. PM R. 2021; 13(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/a-comparison-between-in-person-versus-telemedicine-ordering-frequency-of-mri-lumbar-spine-for-radicular-symptoms/. Accessed May 21, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2021
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/a-comparison-between-in-person-versus-telemedicine-ordering-frequency-of-mri-lumbar-spine-for-radicular-symptoms/