The organization and development of MIST were a response to the needs of health professionals in Alabama, principally rural physicians, who expressed a desire to access the knowledge of the faculty at the UAB Medical ...
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The organization and development of MIST were a response to the needs of health professionals in Alabama, principally rural physicians, who expressed a desire to access the knowledge of the faculty at the UAB Medical Center. MIST provides free service on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis for physicians around the world. At any time, practitioners can obtain specific medical information and discuss possible diagnoses or patient-related problems with UAB specialists. MIST, the first and largest medical professional telephone consultation program of its kind, receives numerous requests from other institutions seeking information and advice on developing similar programs. Such programs now exist in many states. One reason for the success of MIST is that it has always enjoyed high visibility with UAB physicians, credibility with the physician callers, and priority within UAB's Office of the Vice President for Health Affairs. As a consultative system, MIST continues to contribute to improved health care for citizens of Alabama and beyond and to save patients and taxpayers the expense of unnecessary or inappropriate treatment. MIST provides consultation and continuing education at the moment of need for the professional in private practice. In return, UAB specialists are given access to vital research and demographic information, as well as patient referrals. MIST plays an important role in removing barriers to education and consultation for busy medical personnel and in facilitating patient referrals to an acclaimed center of research and excellent patient care. Rather than searching for the proper contact, one call to an easy-to-remember number puts the health professional in touch with the appropriate source. Rural doctors, as well as medical personnel working in urban areas, can feel that they are practicing 'right next door' to an outstanding university medical center where colleagues who are ready and able to offer expert consultation and support at the critical moment o
A major disadvantage of rural medical practice is the limited reserve of consultative options. To determine the perceived clinical utility and educational impact of the West Virginia University Medical Access and Refe...
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A major disadvantage of rural medical practice is the limited reserve of consultative options. To determine the perceived clinical utility and educational impact of the West Virginia University Medical Access and Referral System (MARS), a 24-hour prompt telephone-consultation service, a mailed questionnaire was administered to 303 West Virginia clinicians who had used MARS for infectious disease problems. The overall questionnaire response rate was 62 percent. Callers included family practitioners (35%), medical specialists (32%), surgical specialists (13%), pediatricians (11%), obstetricians (5%), and nonphysicians (4%). Major referral questions posed were therapeutic (60%), diagnostic (48%), and epidemiologic (10%) in nature. On a scale of 1 (not useful) to 5 (very useful), survey responders rated the overall clinical usefulness of MARS as either a 4 (22%) or 5 (76%). Callers felt that MARS consultation assisted in accurate case diagnosis in 80 percent of cases, and aided in successful therapeutic management of 96 percent of cases. An educational benefit was reported by 96 percent of responders. Physicians located in more rural, underserved areas tended to use MARS to a greater degree than colleagues in more populated, medically accessible areas (P<0.005). These findings suggest that an academic telephone-access consultation program can be a clinically relevant and educational consultative tool for practicing clinicians, especially those located in rural areas.
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