According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 35.5 million adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease (CKD). This represents approximately 14% of the adult population.
Many people with CKD are unaware of their condition, which makes early diagnosis an essential aspect of care. It’s estimated that up to 90% of people with CKD do not have any symptoms in the early stages.
Support for comprehensive care for rheumatology
With long specialist wait times, providers nationwide are turning to eConsults to offer comprehensive rheumatology care. They often help patients manage chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis while dealing with the realities of limited access to specialists. Specialist shortages, limited access, and long wait times for specialty care can negatively impact patient outcomes.
Electronic physician-to-specialist consultations, or eConsults, can help mitigate the challenge of specialist shortages and other delays in treatment by offering comprehensive rheumatology care. An eConsult is an asynchronous physician-to-physician communication about a patient, conducted over a secure digital platform, that enables PCPs to leverage the expertise of physician specialists like rheumatologists. eConsults gives patients immediate access to specialists from within a primary care setting.
Below, we use rheumatoid arthritis, which affects about 1.5 million US adults, as an example of how eConsults can help PCPs collaborate with specialty physicians to manage chronic, complex diseases.
How eConsults help with comprehensive rheumatology care
Diseases like RA can be challenging to diagnose since severity and symptoms vary from patient to patient. Rheumatologists use 6 commonly used tests to diagnose RA. Working with a rheumatologist is essential for accurate diagnosis and staging. However, timely access to a rheumatologist can be challenging due to a shortage of rheumatologists, high demand, and the resulting long wait times for consults.
In 2018, the American College of Rheumatology announced this shortage was at crisis levels, with over half of practicing rheumatologists expected to retire over the next 15 years. At the same time, early diagnosis and aggressive treatment are key to better patient outcomes, so access to comprehensive rheumatology care is critical as early in the disease process as possible.
eConsults can help PCPs quickly and effectively connect their patients with specialists when access to care is limited. Medical records, lab results, imaging, and other necessary documentation can be securely shared and stored on the eConsult platform. When using an eConsult platform, Patients don’t need to be seen in person by a specialist to get the testing process started. They can continue to receive care locally from their PCP.