Letter to the Editor Regarding “Telemedicine for Endovascular Neurosurgery Consultation During the COVID-19 Era”

Letter:

We would like to share ideas on the publication “Telemedicine for Endovascular Neurosurgery Consultation During the COVID-19 Era: Patient Satisfaction Survey.”¹ Majmundar et al¹ concluded that “Our neuroendovascular patients expressed satisfaction with their telemedicine visits, and … outpatient endovascular neurosurgery consultations.” We agree that telemedicine is a useful neurosurgery consultation. A survey might state a patient’s satisfaction, but there are many considerations to be discussed. First, the safety and privacy of using telemedicine is important.¹ Satisfaction is usually based on emotional concern and feeling. Sometimes, it might have safety problems. Safety of telemedicine is based on good communication and data protection.² Also, there must be a good system for prevention of medical errors due to use of teleconsultation.³ Finally, a health-adverse effect of using telecommunication tools should be mentioned. According to Kubota and Kuroda’s⁴ findings, there was an association between telemedicine and an increased rate of seizure among users. For patients at endovascular neurosurgery clinics, there is a chance of neurologic problems including seizure. Hence safety control of telecommunication tools is recommended.