Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Telehealth, including Telemedicine, is the use of electronic communications technology to provide healthcare at a distance. There is a growing need to train future physicians to be adept and knowledgeable of telehealth. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently defined six core competency domains for Telehealth for medical residents and attending physicians. Methods: A multidisciplinary team of medical educators, Telemedicine practitioners, instructional technology experts and a senior medical student designed a Telemedicine curriculum centered on five primary educational activities. Training moved progressively from novice Telemedicine experiences to Telemedicine encounters with standardized patients and post-encounter debriefs to promote active learning, engagement, and self-regulation. The Telemedicine curriculum was prioritized and delivered to the entire class of 2022 (114 third-year medical students). Results: Student satisfaction surveys and post formative quiz items were used to assess the impact of the Telemedicine Curriculum. Over 95% of surveyed students agreed or strongly agreed the course was organized and helpful in developing clinical skills in preparation for clerkship. Students particularly valued the opportunity to engage in patient encounters while learning Telemedicine-specific patient safety and communication skills. Conclusion: With careful attention to instructional design, active learning formats that are historically successful in face-to-face settings can be equally successful in virtual settings. Standardized patients and peers can be trained to provide appropriate feedback in the right virtual setting.

Highlights

  • Telehealth, including Telemedicine, is the use of electronic communications technology to provide healthcare at a distance

  • The Telemedicine course was developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which created a need for increased online delivery of medical school education, and education in Telemedicine

  • The developers addressed all six American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Telehealth Core Competency domains throughout the course, but the activity design focused primarily on the first three domains as these domains were most applicable for the level of learners and available time and resources

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Summary

Methods

UCF COM utilizes active learning modalities to promote engagement and self-regulation in learning. Encounter-specific learning objectives were defined by faculty (see Supplementary File 1: Objectives row) reflecting the content that had been emphasized in Telemedicine educational activities 1-3 and pre-clerkship curricular modules. In addition to the skills practiced the week prior, this encounter required students to engage in more patient education and shared decision making through Telemedicine. Virtual SP Encounters as a Valuable Learning Tool: Student feedback was exceedingly positive, suggesting that the Telemedicine course was well-received and provided students with tangible Telemedicine skills and useful, new telehealth knowledge. Students were generally very satisfied with the organization of the course and communications from faculty and SPs. The surveys assessed students’ level of satisfaction with feedback received from SP, feedback provided during the debrief, and overall Telemedicine encounter experience. We found the diversity of team members and having a way to prioritize content and pedagogical decisions contributed favorably to the richness of discussion while designing a course that led to positive learning outcomes

Results
Conclusion
Background
Utilize progressive learning formats
Optimize student autonomy when possible
Value of observing a peer in Virtual Telemedicine Simulation
Notes On Contributors
Ethics Statement
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