Administering neuropsychology evaluations to children online in the comfort of their own homes is feasible and delivers results comparable to tests traditionally performed in a clinic, a new study indicates. The finding could help expand access to specialists and reduce barriers to care, particularly as the popularity of telemedicine grows during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patients with a variety of neurological disorders require periodic neuropsychological evaluations to track their cognition, academic skills, memory, attention, and other variables. Typically, these tests are done in clinics, often by specialists in these disorders.

However, explains Lana Harder, Ph.D., ABPP, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at UTSW, many patients travel hundreds of miles to access specialists for their care — a major expense and inconvenience that can also cause fatigue and potentially influence the results. Harder also leads the neuropsychology service and is the neuropsychology training director at Children’s Health.

Research on adults has shown that these evaluations can be done effectively, with the examiner and patient in different rooms. However, those tests were conducted in controlled clinic or laboratory settings rather than patients’ homes, where distractions and technological glitches could confound results. Plus, none of the earlier studies involved children, a population that has its own unique challenges.

To evaluate whether teleneuropsychology evaluations could be effectively performed with children at home, Harder, along with Benjamin Greenberg, M.D., professor of neurology and pediatrics at UTSW and co-director with Harder of the Pediatric CONQUER Program at Children’s, and their colleagues recruited 58 patients primarily from the Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Program at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. This clinic treats patients with neurological autoimmune disorders that target myelin, an insulating layer on nerve cells that is critical to their function. The disorders include transverse myelitis, multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, optic neuritis, and neuromyelitis optica. The patients ranged in age from 6 to 20 and traveled up to 2,033 miles for visits to the clinic.

Each child received the same 90-minute neuropsychology battery twice — once at home and once at the clinic — spaced apart by about 16 days. Half the group received the home test first; the other half got the clinic test first.

Story Source: Materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.