Telehealth visits and Virtual FD annuals

The Dysautonomia Center is utilizing telephone and Zoom video conferencing to enable FD patients and their families to maintain social distance while keeping up with their important health needs. The Dysautonomia Center and FD Foundation have worked together to create telehealth kits that include:

• Real-time electronic stethoscopes – allow patients to transmit heart and lung sounds to our licensed providers
• Kardia EKG monitor– capture medical grade EKG in 30 seconds to detect for atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, tachycardia, or normal sinus rhythm
• Omron Blood pressure machine- monitor orthostatic blood pressures and symptoms from the comfort of your home with an ambulatory clinically-validated machine
• 24-hour BP monitor– assess blood pressure variability throughout the day
• Pulse Oximeter- monitor heart rate and blood oxygenation status
• Apple iPad–  conveniently send all files to your provider in real time
• Return shipping labels- to decrease turnaround time to gather all the data in a timely fashion.

This technology allows for FD annual visits to be performed remotely in the comfort of your own home. These technologies have been utilized for the past 3 months to facilitate in making extremely effective, personalized, and reliable treatment plans for our patients. With the adoption of virtual telehealth visits we have been able to expand our services to FD families that may have physical limitations of coming to the center across the country.

“I really liked my telehealth annual visit. So easy; relaxing— no need traveling to New York and I liked doing it right from home. We should do this every year!”

—- Alexia de Gunzburg FD patient, Naples, Florida

“This was a terrific and professional way to carry out Alexia’s annual visit. The preparation materials arrived in a very efficiently prepared case; all instructions were very clear. Also, good connecting the FD team directly with Alexia’s primary physician here in Florida…first time they met ‘in person’! Great plan and execution and all totally stress-free, which is great for everyone!!”

—- Gerard de Gunzburg, Alexia’s father

“We recently did our first telemedicine visit for our son, Josh. It was very successful.  We would not have done the annual visit this year if we couldn’t do it via zoom.  The appointment went great.  The whole treatment center team participated.  The FD telemedicine kit includes everything we needed.  The specially created YouTube video helped us prepare. And the follow up zoom meeting with Dr. Kaufmann went smoothly. Kudos to Zenith for making it all happen. Barbara, Josh and I recommend telemedicine for FD patients…and everyone else.”

—- Steve Kietz, FD Parent and longtime FD Board Member

In person visits:

In person visits continue to be open for FD patients and their families. We have made several modifications to ensure the safety of our patients and families including hand sanitizing and washing stations throughout the office, minimizing appointment overlap to reduce the number of people in the waiting room, and disinfecting rooms in between each visit.  

Do not hesitate to contact the Dysautonomia Center to create a telehealth or in-person appointment to address your health care needs.

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