Exploring Best Practices and Innovations in Telemedicine for NPN Patients (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: I think we're going to talk just a little bit. We're going to move on to talking about best practices for NPN patients and families using telemedicine. Dr. Pom, we'll just start with you and then talk to Dr. Sierentrop and about that. But what are the best practices for NPN patients utilizing telemedicine? What are some of the newer technologies that we've even talked about today that are being explored that you're most excited about?

Speaker 2: Well, again, I think it's hard to say the right way to use telemedicine. I think that as much as automation and trying to come up with processes that are very standard is important, I think it is still a learning process. Like how long is it safe to do telemedicine? How many, if I'm the only provider seeing this person and there's not somebody physically looking at them, am I doing a disadvantage? So like, what's the safety realm in that? I mean, that is something that I know comes up and it comes up with a lot of physicians. Like, well, I have to examine the patient. I have to eyeball the patient. So trying to figure out that balance of making sure you're providing good quality and safe care, but that you're also allowing for people to have access to things they otherwise wouldn't have access to. And some of that is a matter of having good collaborations with providers in different places and the willingness of the local providers to work with one of us. And some of that's just kind of saying, well, I'm gonna try this. And then after a while, if you say, hey, this isn't working well, then you switch it. But I think a lot of this is something that you can't prescribe. It is something that needs to be the level of comfort for the provider, the level of comfort for the local provider and the patient. And it's not gonna be the same for any two patients. There certainly is gonna be some variability. I'm very excited about the ongoing telemedicine and our ability to utilize it. I'm really hoping that even after the public health emergency, some of the barriers to being able to provide telemedicine outside of your own state will not be a problem. And I think each institution's handling it a little bit differently. So that's something I'm excited for. And there's probably gonna be a lot more that I can't even begin to think about that's gonna come up in terms of ways that people can, like there's handheld imaging machines and stuff like that. Is there gonna be a way that we can actually have patients apply it? So, for example, I like to feel spleens in patients who have myeloproliferative diseases because they're often enlarged. Is there gonna be a way that there's some type of equipment or some type of material that can do a spleen exam without me actually having to physically see the patient and lay hands on them? This is something that probably people are thinking about who are a lot smarter than me. And I'm looking forward to something like that being developed. But that's what I'm hopeful is that we get to the point where I can feel like I'm providing really top quality care to people who could be anywhere in the United States or even honestly, the world.

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