Global & Community Health: Implementation of and patient satisfaction with the first neurologic telemedicine program in Mexico during COVID-19

Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, due to the large number of patients requiring in-hospital care, hospitals worldwide were converted into COVID-19 referral centers. In addition, as part of the mitigation strategies besides social distancing and mandatory use of facemasks, other measures to reduce the risk of infection among healthcare workers such as increasing the time between work shifts and sending high-risk personnel to in-home isolation were taken, leading to a significantly reduced workforce, requiring relocation of medical personnel from multiple specialties to the frontline. 

By April 2020, due to the reduction of medical and administrative staff in addition to the steadily increasing number of patients, our center decided to stop all face-to-face non-COVID-19 consultations. Therefore, we decided to adapt to the challenges and started researching how to implement a teleneurology program to re-open our neurology continuity clinic. Here, we descri...