A telehealth program that connects primary care providers with liver specialists may improve mortality rates for patients with liver disease, according to a study published in the journal Hepatology.
A team of researchers from VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan Medical School, both in Ann Arbor, Mich., evaluated a specialty telehealth program, called the Specialty Access Network‐Extension of Community Healthcare Outcome, or SCAN-ECHO. The Veterans Health Administration implemented the telehealth program at the Ann Arbor facility to help provide chronic liver disease care.
The researchers evaluated patient outcomes from 62,237 liver disease patients who were seen at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, 513 of whom participated in SCAN-ECHO, which connects a patient's PCP with a liver specialist via video conferencing to discuss the patient's case and treatment plan.
The researchers found patients belonging to PCPs who used SCAN-ECHO had a 54 percent higher liver disease survival rate than patients whose physicians didn't participate in such telehealth exchanges.
"Primary care providers really want to do the right thing, but they may not have all the necessary tools," Grace L. Su, MD, chief of gastroenterology at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and lead author of the study, said in a June 4 statement. "This research shows an excellent way to impart specialty knowledge to them."