Donglan “Stacy” Zhang (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
Donglan “Stacy” Zhang, an assistant professor of health policy and management in the College of Public Health, was recently quoted in a Verywell Health article about the impact of telehealth on stroke patients in rural hospitals.
Zhang is one of the researchers who investigated why stroke patients in rural hospitals have more negative outcomes, like a higher risk of death in a recent study. Although the story detailed the effect of telehealth on these types of patients, Zhang went on to discuss telemedicine in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous and multiple impacts on our health care system.” Zhang said. “Immediately after the COVID-19 outbreak, many health care systems experienced a rapid transition from in-person visits to virtual telehealth visits, which shifts the demand of care to telehealth through virtual face-to-face meetings using smartphones, tablets or webcam-enabled computers.”
The story continues to discuss stroke risk factors during a telehealth visit and the importance of timely stroke treatment.
