Telemedicine in neurodegenerative diseases: Opportunities and challenges

As population ages, the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, will continue to rise. Disruption of daily functioning often contributes to increased difficulties in accessibility to appropriate healthcare services. Patients in remote areas are affected to a higher degree, due to the understaffing of the region from specialized healthcare professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing need for remote medical services through telemedicine. The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the role of telemedicine in neurodegenerative disorders, in terms of efficacy, benefits, limitations and reliability of the examination, focusing on recent studies on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. As relevant studies show, the examination of patients with neurodegenerative diseases through telemedicine is feasible, quite reliable, effective and acceptable. At the same time, it is related with high satisfaction rates from patients, caregivers and health professionals, and also can improve accessibility, offering comfort, reducing unnecessary travel and financial costs, and providing the possibility of early diagnosis, regular monitoring and treatment of diseases. Limitations concern the limited availability of the required technological equipment, the lack of a specific legal framework in our country, the absence of official guidelines and the lack of training of healthcare professionals in the provision of telemedicine services. Finally, the need for studies that will investigate the reliability of the telemedicine examination regarding the differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases is emphasized, as well as prospective studies on the long-term results of the monitoring of these patients through telemedicine.