Dataset Information

Telehealth Training Is Essential to Care for Underserved Populations: a Medical Student Perspective.

ABSTRACT: Telehealth is an area of medicine which has magnified the ability to treat patients remotely. Presently the education of medical professionals pertaining to the value, use, and implementation of telehealth is not adequate to harness the potential of available technologies. Patients engaging in telehealth experience time and cost savings, improved disease management through remote monitoring programs, and high-quality care regardless of geographic location. Despite this, medical education has been slow to evolve. It is therefore imperative that medical curricula incorporate training for this rapidly advancing mode of healthcare delivery to enable students to best care for their future patient population.

SUBMITTER: Camhi SS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7299135 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Telehealth Training Is Essential to Care for Underserved Populations: a Medical Student Perspective.

Camhi Stephanie S SS Herweck Alexandra A Perone Hanna H

Medical science educator 20200615 3

Telehealth is an area of medicine which has magnified the ability to treat patients remotely. Presently the education of medical professionals pertaining to the value, use, and implementation of telehealth is not adequate to harness the potential of available technologies. Patients engaging in telehealth experience time and cost savings, improved disease management through remote monitoring programs, and high-quality care regardless of geographic location. Despite this, medical education has bee ...[more]

PMID: 32837786

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundeHealth is the use of information and communication technologies to enable and improve health and health care services. It is crucial that medical students receive adequate training in eHealth as they will work in clinical environments that are increasingly being enabled by technology. This trend is especially accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic as it complicates traditional face-to-face medical consultations and highlights the need for innovative approaches in health care.ObjectiveThis review aims to evaluate the extent and nature of the existing literature on medical student training in eHealth. In detail, it aims to examine what this education consists of, the barriers, enhancing factors, and propositions for improving the medical curriculum. This review focuses primarily on some key technologies such as mobile health (mHealth), the internet of things (IoT), telehealth, and artificial intelligence (AI).MethodsSearches were performed on 4 databases, and articles were selected based on the eligibility criteria. Studies had to be related to the training of medical students in eHealth. The eligibility criteria were studies published since 2014, from a peer-reviewed journal, and written in either English or French. A grid was used to extract and chart data.ResultsThe search resulted in 25 articles. The most studied aspect was mHealth. eHealth as a broad concept, the IoT, AI, and programming were least covered. A total of 52% (13/25) of all studies contained an intervention, mostly regarding mHealth, electronic health records, web-based medical resources, and programming. The findings included various barriers, enhancing factors, and propositions for improving the medical curriculum.ConclusionsTrends have emerged regarding the suboptimal present state of eHealth training and barriers, enhancing factors, and propositions for optimal training. We recommend that additional studies be conducted on the following themes: barriers, enhancing factors, propositions for optimal training, competencies that medical students should acquire, learning outcomes from eHealth training, and patient care outcomes from this training. Additional studies should be conducted on eHealth and each of its aspects, especially on the IoT, AI, programming, and eHealth as a broad concept. Training in eHealth is critical to medical practice in clinical environments that are increasingly being enabled by technology. The need for innovative approaches in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlights the relevance of this training.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased telehealth usage in the United States. Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) face barriers to health care, which may be mitigated when providers work with professional interpreters. However, telehealth may exacerbate disparities if clinicians are not trained to work with interpreters in that setting. Although medical students are now involved in telehealth on an unprecedented scale, no educational innovations have been published that focus on digital care across language barriers.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate advanced medical students' confidence in caring for patients with LEP during telehealth encounters.MethodsWe administered a written survey to medical students on clinical clerkships at one US institution in August and September 2020. We assessed students' overall confidence in working with interpreters; confidence in performing 8 clinical tasks during in-person versus telehealth encounters; and frequency of performing 5 different clinical tasks with patients with LEP compared to English-speaking patients during in-person versus telehealth encounters. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and chi-square tests were used to compare confidence and task performance frequency, respectively, for patients with LEP versus English-speaking patients during telehealth encounters. Students were also asked to identify barriers to care for patients with LEP. The free-response questions were qualitatively analyzed using open coding to identify key themes.ResultsOf 300 medical students surveyed, 121 responded. Furthermore, 72 students answered >50% of questions and were included in the analyses. Compared to caring for patients with LEP during in-person encounters, respondents were less confident in working with interpreters (P<.001), developing trust (P<.001), identifying agenda (P=.005), eliciting preferences for diabetes management (P=.01), and empowering patients in lifestyle modifications (P=.04) during telehealth encounters. During both in-person and telehealth encounters, approximately half of students (40%-78%) reported engaging less frequently in every clinical task with patients with LEP and this was as low as 22% (13/59) for some tasks. Students identified these key barriers to care for patients with LEP: time pressure, interpretation quality and access, technical difficulties, cultural differences, and difficulty with rapport building.ConclusionsAdvanced medical students were significantly less confident caring for patients with LEP via telehealth than in person. Broader implementation of training around navigating language barriers is necessary for telehealth care, which has rapidly expanded in the United States. Our study identified potential key areas for curricular focus, including creating patient-centered agendas and management plans within the constraints of virtual settings. These developments must take place simultaneously with systems-level improvements in interpreter infrastructure to ensure high-quality care for linguistically diverse patients.

Project description:BackgroundHypertension is the most important modifiable stroke risk factor, but blood pressure (BP) remains poorly controlled after stroke, especially among Black and Hispanic patients. We tested the feasibility of TASC (Telehealth After Stroke Care), a post-acute stroke care model integrating nurse-supported home BP telemonitoring, tailored infographics, and multidisciplinary team video visits.MethodsAcute stroke patients with hypertension were randomized at discharge to usual care or usual care with TASC. Usual care patients received video visits with primary care and stroke. TASC included a tablet and monitor to wirelessly transmit BP data to the electronic health record, with telenursing support, tailored infographics to explain BP readings, and pharmacist visits. Outcomes assessment was blinded. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment, randomization, adherence, and retention. Systolic BP from baseline to 3 months after discharge was evaluated using generalized linear modeling.ResultsFifty patients (64±14 years; 36% women' 44% Hispanic, 32% Black, 54% ≤high school education, 30% private insurance), and 75% of all eligible were enrolled over 6.3 months. Baseline systolic BP was similar in both (TASC n=25, 140±19 mm Hg; usual care n=25, 142±19 mm Hg). At 3 months, adherence to video visits (91% versus 75%, P=0.14) and retention (84% versus 64%, P=0.11) were higher with TASC. Home systolic BP declined by 16±19 mm Hg from baseline in TASC and increased by 3±24 mm Hg in usual care (P=0.01). Among Black patients, systolic BP control (<130 mm Hg) improved from 40% to 100% with TASC versus 14% to 29%, and among Hispanic patients, from 23% to 62% with TASC, versus 33% to 17% in usual care.ConclusionsEnhancing post-acute stroke care with home BP telemonitoring is feasible to improve hypertension in an underserved setting and should be tested in a definitive randomized clinical trial.RegistrationURL: https://www.Clinicaltrialsgov; Unique identifier: NCT04640519.

Dataset Information

Telehealth Training Is Essential to Care for Underserved Populations: a Medical Student Perspective.

Publications

Telehealth Training Is Essential to Care for Underserved Populations: a Medical Student Perspective.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets