Kai Karos, PhD

Nearly all patients (adults, children and adolescents) with pre-existing chronic pain found their care to be abruptly and sometimes profoundly altered. Appointments were canceled or changed to telephone visits, non-urgent surgical and interventional pain management procedures were put on hold, and maintaining ongoing prescriptions became precarious.

Health systems had to urgently modify their routines and either upgrade or newly acquire telemedicine strategies.
Patients’ longstanding struggles with anxiety, depression and social isolation worsened, and some had limited or no access to telemedicine technology.

Results of multiple studies of the patient experience and useful guides to successful telehealth implementation will be presented.