Faculty and providers from SIU School of Medicine and from across the country presented sessions Tuesday on telemedicine’s evolving role in maternal care, internal medicine specialties, nursing, neurology and more.
Dr. Robert Abrams is Executive Director at SIU’s Center for Maternal Fetal Medicine. “What we’re seeing is maternal mortality and morbidity decreasing. Telemedicine has really improved maternal care throughout Central and Southern Illinois.”
Two years after the flashpoint of COVID-19, Tuesday’s conference called “Virtual Care in a Changing World,” aimed to address questions like “Which new communication methods are here to stay?” “What medical specialties rose to the challenge?” and “What lies ahead as the digital dust settles?”
One thing is clear—more access means better care.
“I’m from Chicago,” Dr. Abrams said, “so I can speak on a personal level. In Chicago, access to healthcare is easier in the sense that there are more providers. In Central and Southern Illinois, we have what we call maternity deserts, and there are areas where patients have to drive two, three hours to receive obstetrical care, so telemedicine gives us the ability to provide care to all women in Central and Southern Illinois regardless of where they live, and there’s very good data that shows women who have access to high obstetrical care have better outcomes.”
Abrams made the point that some specialties may be better suited to telemedicine than others, but that even in disciplines like internal medicine, the emergent practice of virtual care has proved useful in gathering patients’ background and medical history.