I was recently honored to be featured in a success story, an in-depth case study prepared by ImPACT® Applications, Inc. They’re the outstanding concussion assessment and management company who created ImPACT, one of the advanced technological tools our MAC Alliance partners utilize. Our growing network of certified medical professionals and athletic trainers in (to date!) New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New York have seen the positive “impact” of using tools like ImPACT and other brain health monitoring tools like BrainScope®, RightEye®, EyeGuide® and our latest, Cambridge Brain Sciences (CBS).
As a credentialed Impact consultant, I first became acquainted with ImPACT more than a decade ago. At the time, as an urgent care doctor, I realized that so many patients were coming in with concussions and the regular practice wasn’t able to manage the way I thought best to promote full patient recovery. ImPACT testing helped us immensely then, as it still does today.
Virtual Concussion Assessments
Part of the case study discussed the perceived future of telemedicine which, as we know, has virtually exploded in the past few months due to COVID -19. It’s clear that telemedicine is here to stay as we continually find new ways to provide our patients with concussion tools that they can often access without even having to leave the comforts of their home.
We’ve been conducting virtual assessments and, after diagnosis, have been able to create customized brain health rehab programs for so many new patients. While we like to meet patients in person to conduct physical examinations, these trying times have more than shown us just how well virtual visits can work. And we see a bright future, post-pandemic, for patients who may lack reliable transportation, who may be too sick to travel, or have a compromised immune system that makes traveling and visiting an office troubling due to fears of contracting something else.
As stated in the study, “Since Mac Alliance has patients who often travel upwards of four hours to be seen, Dr. Schaller believes telemedicine will be more widely used going forward due to its ability to increase patient accessibility without compromising quality of care.”
When COVID-19 hit, we had to shift to telemedicine practically overnight. But what we discovered was exciting. We’re continually looking for new ways to improve access to concussion care for our patients! Contact your local Mac Alliance concussion specialist today to find out how we can help you!
