Hospitals and health systems across the country are accelerating their adoption of telemedicine toolkits, supporting virtual care delivery models.
The first are non-traditional health care entities who offer digital health tools and independent virtual care options directly to consumers, bypassing the traditional continuum of care previously offered by legacy hospitals and health systems. The second is the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced hospitals and health systems to quickly pivot to the use of digital health tools such as remote monitoring and virtual care models like telemedicine to provide care to patients who don’t need — or don’t want — in-person care. Telemedicine generally refers to the use of telehealth tools (video cams, digital stethoscopes, handheld ultrasound, wearables, etc.) for the provision of remote clinical services, via real-time or asynchronous two-way communication between the patients and care providers.
Competition between hospitals, health systems, and health insurance carriers creates a host of challenges moving forward in a post-pandemic healthcare world. Among them are the recent rapid growth of mega-groups deploying digital-first, AI-assisted strategies delivering healthcare services in non-traditional settings. By aligning clinical need and digital readiness of their served populations, these new entities are rapidly innovating with digital-first and hybrid virtual care delivery models. In order to realize the equitable and inclusive benefits of team-based care, to manage change, and to adjust to the realities of new funding models, most healthcare organizations are already experiencing a need for a new generation of healthcare professionals and leaders trained and skilled in the highest and best use of the tools of this new type of care.
Introductory and advanced courses in telemedicine and digital medicine are offered to students and faculty at COMP for those interested in a focused review and understanding of this rapidly expanding discipline. The Digital Doctor Bag (a learning and care platform toolkit supplied to all COMP medical students) hosts a number of clinical and learning applications that support development of digitally supported clinical reasoning skills as well as student-learner participation in both live-streamed and simulated virtual clinical case scenarios. COMP maintains the five pillars of the WesternU Way. Advancing its mission “To produce, in a humanistic tradition, health care professionals and biomedical knowledge that will enhance and extend the quality of life in our communities”):
- Educational Excellence & Online Learning
- Interprofessionalism
- Collaboration & Partnerships
- Innovation & Operational Excellence
- Revenue Diversity
In the pre-clinical years, all first-year COMP students are familiarized with 20 academically accepted telehealth and telemedicine competencies in an Introduction to Telehealth and Telemedicine survey course followed by an Introduction to Digital Medicine and Artificial Intelligence during their second year of medical school. Interested third and fourth-year students are additionally offered a clinical elective month during which they experience the application of these competencies in both simulated and real-time patient care scenarios gaining clinical practice and leadership skills necessary for the provision of digital-first care in a variety of care settings.
COMP’s telehealth, telemedicine and digital medicine experiences foster the development of telemedicine competencies in simulated and direct patient care settings preparing its graduates to function with increasing autonomy in preparation for leadership in the evidence-based practice of digitally assisted care during their residency years and beyond.
