Spine surgeon Melvin Makhni, MD, is touting telemedicine to "continue to revolutionize healthcare" after healthcare providers across the country have pivoted to the technology since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS Boston reports.
Dr. Makhni is director of complex spine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where the orthopedic surgery department is now seeing 98 percent of its patients through telemedicine, according to the report.
BWH is scheduling between 60 percent to 70 percent of outpatients for telemedicine appointments.
Before the pandemic, the hospital was scheduling about 10 virtual patients per day — a number that has since grown to almost 3,000.
"The patients have learned that they're not as worried about the security issues and conveying their points to their care givers; that they're able to get appropriate care," Dr. Makhni told CBS Boston.