A Simple Intervention Improves Access to Telemedicine for Spanish-Speaking Families in an Outpatient Pediatric Epilepsy Clinic

Abstract

Telemedicine has become an established modality of care in pediatric neurology since the COVID-19 pandemic made it a necessity. However, prominent barriers have persisted for socially vulnerable families, including non–English-speaking families. In a cohort of Spanish-speaking families, we assessed the effect of an educational intervention in improving patient portal activation and use of telemedicine by doing a retrospective observational study. Among the 69 families assessed, 42 did not receive intervention, including 74% who already had patient portals and 26% without portal activation, and none of those 11 families subsequently activated the portal or underwent telemedicine. Among 27 families who received the intervention, 85% activated the portal, including 87% who participated in telemedicine visits. Results did not achieve statistical significance for accessing telemedicine but did for activating the portal. We postulate that a simple, brief educational intervention was effective in increasing access to neurologic telemedicine care in non–English-speaking families.