Table 2. Benefits and barriers to tele-medicine implementations.

EEG: electroencephalogram; EMG: electromyography.

Telemedicine implementations

Benefits

Increased practice outreach, development, and efficiency

Decreased travel time and expenses for doctors and patients

Expansion of educational opportunities and continuing medical education for physicians

Individual and group education for patients about their neurologic disease

Easy recruitment of patients into clinical trials

Improvement of access to neurologic expertise for remote or underserviced areas

Reduction in geographical disparity for neurologic care

Decreased response time in stroke

High patient and family satisfaction survey scores with their tele-neurology care

Barriers

Disruption of traditional doctor–patient relationship

Physician reluctance to adopt novel technology in practice

Limitations to billing and reimbursement for time spent

Additional costs for technology

Licensing, credentialing issues for out-of-state physicians

Concern for malpractice liability

Performing complete neurologic examination solely via telehealth, particularly evaluating

Obtaining neurodiagnostic tests such as EEG, EMG, and neuroimaging in remote settings