Telemedicine Referral to Improve Access to Specialty Care for Preschool Children in Rural Alaska: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Preschool programs provide essential preventive services, such as hearing screening, but in rural regions, limited access to specialists and loss to follow-up compound rural health disparities. We conducted a parallel-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial to evaluate telemedicine specialty referral for preschool hearing screening. The goal of this trial was to improve timely identification and treatment of early childhood infection-related hearing loss, a preventable condition with lifelong implications. We hypothesized that telemedicine specialty referral would improve time to follow-up and the number of children receiving follow-up compared with the standard primary care referral.

Design

We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial in K-12 schools in 15

SUBMITTER: Robler SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10583927 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov-Dec 01

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature