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The retrospective diagnosis of concussion is often missed by clinicians. We present a brief scale for retrospective assessment of the immediate concussion symptoms (ICS) to facilitate the diagnosis of patients without visible head injury or full loss of consciousness. We administered the scale to 90 survivors of car accidents (mean age 42.0, SD=13.6; 33 males, 57 females) at 2 to 33 months after their accident. Our scale consists of 6 items and these were endorsed by the following % of our respondents: feeling dazed (64.4% of our 90 respondents), stunned (73.3%), confused (70.0%), disoriented (62.2%), dizzy (57.8%), and loss of consciousness (22.2%). The statistical properties of the scale are satisfactory (Cronbach alpha = 0.74). The scale correlates with post-accident insomnia (r=0.28), depression (r=0.29), and also with Rivermead measure of the chronic post-concussion syndrome (r=0.34). The ICS scale could be used as a starting point in longitudinal research with brain imaging procedures to evaluate the stages of recovery from the initial concussion. Attached are the English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Czech versions of our scale.

Efficient delivery of integrated healthcare requires solid alliances and collaboration with stakeholders on a regular basis. Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it has become necessary to explore new ways of delivering integrated healthcare, and virtual clinics have offered one solution and are likely to continue due to the uncertainty with COVID-19. This study aims to explore clinicians’ experiences of how efficient virtual elective knee clinics (VEKC) are in an orthopaedic setting in comparison to traditional face-to-face clinics.

The study utilised a mixed-methods study to obtain qualitative and quantitative data. This involved an anonymous online survey in addition to in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with a purposive sample of multidisciplinary colleagues who work with the VEKC in an acute hospital.

Three overarching themes and nine sub-themes emerged in the qualitative analysis. Overall, clinicians in both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the study highlighted several ways that virtual clinics are efficient from both the patient and health service perspective. However, participants also highlighted barriers in relation to virtual clinics not being suitable for certain cohorts of patients and pathologies.

This is the first study in Ireland to provide valuable insights into the experiences of multidisciplinary clinicians using VEKC and their efficiency compared to traditional face-to-face clinics.