Patients Assessment in Telegeriatrics Care

Elder patients are considered to have a high degree of frailty and active multiple pathology. When access to geriatric care is very limited, diagnostic methods without face to face contact are of prime importance, especially during initial patient assessment. The goal of the paper is to present and validate telemedicine screening procedures adopted in the John Paul II Geriatric Hospital (GH), covering the neurological part of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA). The participants of the study have been patients aged 65 and older. Three methods have been evaluated: Telephone Interview for Cognitive Assessment (TICS), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) questionnaire filled out during video call, and analysis of a written text. The third procedure aims at detecting cognitive skills, providing alternative to Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Face-to-face methods are used as a gold standard reference. High or moderate correlations have been observed in all cases, i.e. in TICS versus reference MMSE scores (Spearman’s R \(=\) 0.7955), in face-to-face GDS versus videoconference Tele-GDS (Spearman’s R \(=\) 0.7148), and in the written text versus MoCA. (Spearman’s R \(=\) −0.6649). The results of this study presume that TICS can be applied as a reliable method of remote diagnostics. In the two latter cases, the use of telegeriatrics has not been excluded, and further research is planned. Comprehensive assessment has been considered to be crucial for delivering geriatric care. Work in the field of telemedicine-based comprehensive assessment of geriatric patient should be continued.