Establishing a telemedicine program for interventional radiology: a study of patient opinion and experience

PURPOSEThe COVID-19 pandemic forced healthcare officials to implement new policies, such as the use of virtual consultations over office-based medical appointments, to reduce the transmission of the virus. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively compare patients’ experiences with virtual outpatient telemedicine encounters at a single academic institution in Interventional Radiology (IR) and in-person visits during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODSThe TeleENT Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Medical Communication Competence Scale (MCCS) were used to survey patients’ satisfaction with both in-person and virtual office visits. RESULTSNinety respondents (38 in-person, 52 virtual) acknowledged numerous benefits of virtual visits versus in-person office visits including reductions in time, cost, and potential viral transmission risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. No statistically significant difference was noted, based on a Likert scale from 1 to 7, between in-person and virtual visits (all p > 0.05) for scheduling related factors. No statistically significant difference was noted in any of the MCCS subscales between the two cohorts in regards to medical information communication (all p > 0.05). A majority of patients with virtual encounters (82.7%) stated that it was easy to obtain an electronic device for use during the telemedicine visit, and 73.1% of patients felt that setting up the telemedicine encounter was easy.CONCLUSIONThis study demonstrates that telemedicine is an acceptable alternative to in-office appointments and could increase access to IR care outside of the traditional physician-patient interaction. With telemedicine visits, patients can communicate their concerns and obtain information from the doctor with noninferior communication compared to in-person visits

Ulcerated Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) with Ingested Bone Foreign Body Mimicking a Perforation with Abscess

AbstractGastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) have a variety of appearances and can present as an intraluminal, extraluminal, solid or ulcerated mass. We present an unusual case of a patient presenting with pain, elevated white count, and computed topography (CT) findings suggesting an abscess containing bone. CT guided drainage was performed, and resulted in bowel perforation, leading to surgical intervention and the diagnosis of an ulcerated gastrointestinal stromal tumor containing bone

Percutaneous Thrombin Injection for Treatment of a Splenic Artery Aneurysm

AbstractSplenic artery aneurysms are an uncommon entity and are usually asymptomatic when diagnosed. Treatment is based on size, with aneurysms greater than 2 cm usually undergoing surgical repair. We present a case in which percutaneous thrombin injection was used for treatment of a splenic artery aneurysm

Auto-Rejection of Renal Donor-Origin Metastatic Melanoma

AbstractWe report a case of metastatic malignant melanoma discovered in a living related donor shortly after renal transplant and subsequently diagnosed in the recipient. The recipient hepatic metastases were followed with serial computed tomography (CT) during regression/rejection of tumor after cessation of immunosuppression and allograft removal. Correlation made with serial liver mass biopsies