Preparing Future Doctors for Telemedicine: An Asynchronous Curriculum for Medical Students Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in both the clinical environment and medical education. The abrupt shift to telemedicine in March 2020, coupled with the recommendation that medical students pause in-person clinical rotations, highlighted the need for student training in telemedicine.

Approach

To maintain students' ability to participate in clinical encounters and continue learning in the new virtual environment, a telemedicine curriculum for clinical students was rapidly developed at Harvard Medical School (HMS) focusing on the knowledge and skills needed to conduct live video encounters. Curriculum leads created an interactive, flexible curriculum to teach students clinical skills, regulatory issues, professionalism, and innovations in telemedicine. This 5-module curriculum was delivered using various primarily asynchronous modalities including webinar-style presentations, pre-recorded videos of physical exams from different disciplines, shadowing a synchronous telemedicine visit, peer discussions in small groups, and quizzes with both multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

Outcomes

During May 2020, 252 clerkship and post-clerkship medical students at HMS completed the telemedicine curriculum. All students completed a pre-course survey and 216 (85.7%) completed the post-course survey. Students' self-rated knowledge of telemedicine increased, on average, from 38 (15.1%) reporting being fairly/very knowledgeable over 4 domains before the course to 182 (84.3%) afterward (P < .001). The course was highly rated, with 176/205 (85.9%) students reporting that it met their learning needs and 167/205 (81.5%) finding the delivery methods to be effective. Of 101 (45.3%) students who answered an open-ended post-course survey question, 91 (90.1%) reported asynchronous learning to be a positive experience.

Next steps

As telemedicine becomes increasingly and likely permanently integrated into the health care system, providing medical students with robust training in conducting care virtually will be essential. This curriculum provides a promising and feasible framework upon which other schools can apply these emerging competencies to design their own telemedicine curricula.

SUBMITTER: Frankl SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8603440 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature