I am part of a small but growing team of clinical expert colleagues who work together to provide clinical care other than when in the hospital for in-person care or meetings. We have a team of clinicians whose primary practice setting are in their own groups or departments, but who also collaborate in order to enhance the expertise we can access in different subspecialty areas (Neurocritical care, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, epilepsy, etc).
I also ”partner online” in real-time with our neuro mid-level providers, nurses and care managers as part of the daily rounding process.
In other situations, we will meet with other clinicians, or patients and family caregivers, in their hospital, office, skilled nursing facility or home locations, to help facilitate a better understanding of the diagnosis, care plans and decisions related to neurologic conditions.
We use all of the secure tools of NowDox.
Virtual care is about people collaborating with people. This does not involve any special complicated technology. Individuals can access this service directly, with their own connections and devices. There is NO need to ask for “permission” by anyone else (whether you work alone, in small groups or a larger organization its all about individuals) to participate securely and reliably.
HOW TO FIND ME PERSONALLY….See if I am available and begin a virtual consultative interaction by logging into Google Chat, Google Talk, GMail….find and add me to your chat invites as abarbash@gmail.com. Anyone can use Gmail chat from any mobile device, tablet, pc or mac at any time. I post a calendar of availability on my home page (www.ajbmd.com)
THIS IS EASY TO DO..all you need is:
- An internet connection
- Any type of computer or mobile device
- A webcam (if on a PC or Mac)
- A gmail account with google chat enabled is absolutely preferred
- Note I have secure tools to easily meet online, share files securely, secure practical messaging mobile video conferencing if needed.
- I also can send any one a link at any time to securely take over your computer (while you watch and control the process) in order to help setup or access tools needed.
THERE ARE MANY TASKS WE CAN GET DONE TOGETHER:
There are many situations in which you as a clinician, staff member, care manager, patient, or family caregiver could use a “second set of eyes and ears” on a clinical situation to get an additional neurologic perspective in a very different way than a typical “on site consultation”.
Review some scans together online via secure screen sharing. You can be logged into your “system” and show me the scans, I can do the same, or you might even have a CD with some images from another location that we can review together online. I do this with clinicians, staff, families, patients, etc
Meet simultaneously with staff members, patients, family caregivers, other providers on site or remote to do a direct neurologic consultation. This is always more effective with a nurse or mid level provider in the room where the patient is located (if we need to see and talk with the patient)
Meet by video conference to discuss some additional “history details” and get a second opinion view of the whole history and sequence of events for a given case.
Meet online to help different clinicians who are already involved in a situation to get together and collectively review information to get everyone on the same page.
In other situations, you as a clinician or patient might just want some assistance interpreting reports or notes, or the opinions/conclusions of others as support to you in the decision-making process.
I have access to many types of secure communication tools to help collect various types of information together in real time, package them up and get them over to others who might be involved in your care.
I will generally create a brief report and post it into a secure file repository with direct access by the person I have interacted with , and able to securely share with others who need to know
A SIMPLE WORKFLOW TO ACCESS THE VIRTUAL NEUROLOGY SERVICE AT ANY TIME:
Login to GMail Chat/Talk from your PC, Mac, Tablet or mobile smartphone (personal or work, does not matter)
See my “status of availability” shown right under my name if we already had an invite relationship setup. If not, send me a quick invite within GChat.
Send me a quick text message about the clinical need you might have.
We have a quick text interaction and generally go right to an instant video consult. No phone calls. No wasted time finding each other by pager, answering service, voice mail.
High efficiency, High safety method of interacting by “face-to-face” discussion in real time, and sharing of screens, images, records in real time as needed.
If you have any questions please send an email to abarbash@gmail.com and we can setup a time to “meet online” while you are either at work or at home, including early morning or evening hours i that is most convenient for you.
What are the fees associated with this service?
I am an active member of the Virtual Care Coalition and its non-profit foundation. Its primary mission is to establish completely new models of compensation to clinicians who put time and energy into collaborating online, regardless of the specialty, the clinical situation, or who is involved. We all expect this to be a very important model into the future.
Any other fees that might be paid directly, or not covered by this foundation model would be on a voluntary “per-meeting” or “availability” basis.
There are no additional fees for individual clinicians or patients of Holy Cross Hospital (Silver Spring, MD) .. I oversee the neurosciences program for the hospital.
There are no additional fees for individual clinicians or patients of MaineGeneral Health (Augusta-Waterville, ME)...I consult formally with the organization on virtual care and have neurology privileges.
I generally include this service as part any clinical or virtual care consulting arrangements with a hospital, group or healthcare organization. For all others, see my online fee schedule, all done securely via Paypal. I also welcome contributions to the Virtual Care Coalition in lieu of direct fee payments.
The secure messaging, file sharing and video conferencing tools supported by NowDox clinicians are very helpful in this process. I will generally setup these tools for you as part our virtual care interaction.
However, you can contact me without having yet registered with any of these tools……abarbash@gmail.com
