Virtual Frailty Exams Improve Patient Comfort, Diagnostic Accuracy

Researchers from the American Society of Hematology found that allowing blood cancer patients to participate in virtual frailty examinations led to high levels of participation, accurate diagnoses, and limited exposure to COVID-19.

In a study published in Blood Advances, researchers created two cohorts: patients who completed the frailty exam virtually (185 patients) and others who completed the exam in person (876 patients). The virtual exam cohort included patients 73 years and older who completed the assessment between November 2020 and March 2022, while the in-person group consisted of patients 75 years and older who completed the exam in the same period. The evaluation of each cohort included assessing feasibility and safety levels.

Although frailty exams typically take place in person within a clinical setting, the COVID-19 pandemic created restrictions that limited in-person assessments.

“Doing our 42-item assessment in the clinic required a lot of person-to-person contact,” said study author Clark DuMontier, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in a press release. “We decided to adapt our in-person evaluation to a virtual format to prevent unnecessary viral exposure, but we still wanted to maintain our objective performance measures of cognition and walking speed. Our assessment is, to our knowledge, the first in blood cancers to evaluate both patient-reported and objective items together via telehealth.”

Results of the study indicate an 81.1 percent completion rate of virtual assessments with no safety incidents occurring. Researchers also noted that those in the virtual group had a lower frail status than the in-person group.

According to DuMontier, virtual exams not only limit exposure to COVID-19 but also provide a practical evaluation of patient status as they reside in their homes.

Despite the positive results experienced by the virtual exam cohort, researchers acknowledged one key limitation of their study, namely that COVID-19 eliminated their ability to compare cohort scores in the same group of patients.

Research has indicated that virtual exams for various conditions are becoming increasingly popular.

For example, a survey from Versant Health in February 2021 indicated that patients approved of and enjoyed the benefits associated with virtual vision care. Researchers found that 38 percent of participants under 40 believed that having the option of virtual care would enormously increase the frequency of their appointments.

A partnership struck in October 2021 involved increasing access to virtual medical exams. In the collaboration, NorthShore University HealthSystem worked with TytoCare to incorporate virtual medical exams into its existing telehealth platform. The tests performed using a handheld, artificial intelligence-enabled exam kit are accompanied by the option of in-person or virtual visits.