Tailored Online Neurosurgical Evaluation in the Outpatient Setting during COVID-19 Pandemic—The Maldives Experience

Introduction: The recent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed important obstacles in our health care systems, including online specialist consultations. Amidst mass lockdowns and social distancing, we observed the importance of developing a consistent method of performing effective neurological examinations that yield accurate results in a time efficient manner. Objectives: To describe our experience in the Maldives of performing effective online neurological examination. Methodology: We designed and implemented a platform for patients to register for online consultation, collected a comprehensive neurological history, including pictures/scroll-videos of past radiological reports, and guided the patient and their aide through neurological examination methods- both verbally through online video consultation and informative pictorials that depict exactly how-to perform said examinations. Conclusions: Neurological examinations are time consuming, detailed and require skill and expertise to be performed appropriately. Yet, can be customized and adapted to be performed remotely. Proper guidance by examiner and assistance by family or friend with use of pictorials can conclude a thorough online examination.