Modified Parkinson’s Patient Education & Telemedicine Outcomes

Background: After the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased focus on telehealth care and its benefits. It allows people to visit their doctors from home, which can be especially valuable for people with movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease. One of the primary issues with telemedicine is the hindered communication between patients and providers over technology stemming from not being able to perform physical tests requiring patient contact and  difficulties in setting up patient environments  to help conduct a meaningful  visit from their end, constraining  providers' ability to assess the patient’s condition. While educational material is typically provided for the patient, it is often written in a language that is hard to understand and unspecific to patients with Parkinson's disease, who may need larger text size and guidance for specific movement-disorder related tests.

Objective: Our study is investigating whether providing a revised educational pamphlet to telemedicine patients written in a language they can understand will improve the quality of their virtual visit and their satisfaction with telemedicine. We would like to know whether these improvements will make patients consider telemedicine as a strong alternative to in-person visits if needed.

Current Status/Goals: The study has been officially approved by the IRB and the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute hospital. We are now beginning our study and collecting data.