Abstract
The current manuscript contains a protocol proposal for a prospective research trial comparing virtual vascular clinic visits to actual physical clinic visits. Patient dissatisfaction can increase because of the complexities associated with navigating modern health care systems. It is easy to speculate that some of this dissatisfaction is associated with travel, wait times and other issues that arise during routine clinic visits. The authors of recent studies have demonstrated that it is possible and feasible to conduct many routine visits remotely. It is our belief that virtual health assessments and treatment plans (VHAT) conducted remotely can be as effective, perhaps be more efficient and increase patient satisfaction when compared to regular physical health assessments and treatment plans (PHAT). Physicians want to provide optimal health care; however, in geographically isolated areas such as some locations in West Virginia that can be a challenge. It seems reasonable to believe that monitoring patients with telehealth technology, collecting on-going real time data and conducting VHAT can provide high-quality health care for patients. It can also help to classify health risk, increase patient and medical staff satisfaction, decrease staff time for visits, while at the same time increase the efficiency of the follow-up process. We plan to compare the physician assessments and future treatment plans made using VHAT to those made after PHAT. It is believed that VHAT will be in agreement with those made with PHAT. AIMS/OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of the current project is to compare assessment and future treatment plans for low-risk patients made via VHAT and PHAT visits. A secondary objective is to measure patient and physician satisfaction. METHODS: STUDY HYPOTHESES: 1. There will be good agreement (kappa coefficient ≥ 0.80) between VHAT and PHAT assessments and treatment plans. More specifically, VHATand PHAT assessments will be used to classify patients into low, moderate and high risk for intervention and there will be good agreement between the two methods. 2. Patient satisfaction will be greater for VHAT as compared to PHAT visits.