The primary purpose of the study is to examine the effect of video visit care (telehealth) on concussion clinical outcomes. We hypothesize that telehealth clinical care is not inferior to in-person care.

The American Academy of Neurology released a position statement in 2019 that telemedicine can be appropriate for evaluating patients who experience a concussion, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or headache. The pandemic forced health care to adapt to new telehealth technology quickly, and has provided a natural timepoint to assess the efficacy of telehealth compared to in-person care.

This is a retrospective chart review of 100 new adult patients that were seen in the concussion clinic between 2020 and 2022 that were seen either in person or by video visit. Chart review included, age, sex, race, days from injury to appointment, mechanism of injury, post-concussion symptom score, and neurological exam findings. Outcome measures included therapy referral, follow up, and time to recovery.

We found that 20% (20/100) of patients chose video visit as their access to care. There was no significant difference in the age (27.5 y/o video vs 30 y/o in person), sex (60 vs 63% female), or number of previous concussions (1.68 vs 2.1) for patients that chose telemedicine as part of their care compared to in person visits. Patients had similar times to first appointment after their injury (14.68 vs 15.24 days), similar number of symptoms (14.1 vs 13.2), and severity of symptoms (37.1 vs 41.1). Patients were referred to PT at a similar rate (45% vs  43%), and had no significant difference in their recovery time (40 vs 38.29 days).

Telemedicine for concussion care is a viable option for patients that does not delay care or worsen clinical outcomes compared to standard of care given by in person visits.