These authors completed a prospective randomized controlled trial to compare telehealth to in-person postoperative care from both a patient satisfaction and outcomes perspective. With no significant difference in baseline demographics between the 2 cohorts, this is part of a growing body of evidence that shows the noninferiority of telehealth for many use cases and supports the ongoing reimbursement of this form of accessing care. Specifically, the “telemedicine” arm of this study consisted of a majority of telephone visits, which has implications for the development of future policy. Consistent with other reports, patients were equally satisfied with their telemedicine visits compared with in-person visits and were able to save both time and money with this visit modality. A significant finding is that in addition to these favorable measures, there was a lack of adverse outcomes and no crossovers to in-person following the virtual visit. The efficiencies that can be gained for both patients and providers to utilize telehealth for a postoperative visit are considerable, and these authors demonstrated that these efficiencies do not risk the quality of care. This should encourage physicians to offer telemedicine as an alternative for postoperative care, ensuring to not compromise patient safety.
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