ODESSA, Texas — The increased convenience of telemedicine visits during the COVID-19 pandemic is spurring calls among patients and doctors.
The virus has affected people's ability to get treatment for acute and chronic soft tissue injuries.
By providing telehealth options for patients, Airrosti is trying to get around that problem.
The big question was whether or not these providers could diagnose and treat a patient's ailments through online visits.
It turns out that they can, with a lot of success.
Airrosti started developing their telemedicine program about a year and a half ago because were only in four states and wanted to reach out to as many people as possible.
Jason Garrett, the managing vice president of clinical development, said the results of this telehealth option were a welcome surprise.
"When I said it was really surprising, I didn’t think they would be as good as they are in the clinic, and so far they are. We’re at a 90% resolution rate, and we’re averaging around three visits for people to get out of pain," Garrett said.
The tricky part of this method of treatment would be diagnosing a patient's issue. According to Garrett, it's actually not that difficult.
"You can pinpoint most injuries really well because they have the history and the experience of seeing injuries like this over and over and over and they become pretty self-explanatory. There are some complicated ones, but for the most part, we can figure it out," Garrett said.
When asked about any potential drawbacks to this system, Garret said he hasn't noticed any up to this point.
"We thought our providers and our patients would lose some of that hands-on connection, just being the personal side of things but with the pandemic and the way things shifted, that didn’t happen at all," Garrett said.
Upon their online visits, patients receive video exercises through their Airrosti portals and can have those exercises adjusted if the providers feel like the patient isn't making enough progress.
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