Covid-19 and the patients suffering from back pain

The changing requirements for the safety of patients and doctors and the legal changes caused by the covid-19 pandemic stimulate interest in telemedicine in all medical specialties, incl. neurosurgery.
In the latest issue of the journal NEUROSURGERY there is an interesting article that makes a systematic review of the literature examining the treatment of neurosurgical patients through telemedicine.
Colleagues perform a systematic review, including all studies examining the success of remote treatment of neurosurgical diseases through telemedicine. They analyzed a total of 52 studies (25 prospective and 27 retrospective) with 45,801 patients - a total of 13 studies in the United States and 39 in other countries. They found that the success of telemedicine consultations in neurosurgery was 99.6% of cases. They conclude that neurosurgical telemedicine is a promising way to counsel patients.
I myself have a lot of experience with remote consultations. They are almost always successful. However, it is very difficult for me to sometimes offer a patient surgery if I have not examined the patient in person. In other words, telemedicine has a place in the treatment of patients, but the doctor / patient meeting is a very important part of medicine. This has been the case for millennia and this cannot be changed.
Here is a link to the original article