Telemedicine: improving clinical care and medical education in paediatrics

Macwilliam, Jessica; Hennessey, Iain; Cleary, Gavin

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid increase in the use of telemedicine. This is likely to continue when the social distancing restrictions have been eased. There have been a number of technological advances that have contributed to the roll-out and improved quality of telemedicine consultations. Telemedicine has a number of benefits including facilitating home working for clinicians, reduce travel time for families and allows multidisciplinary team working across different sites. In addition to these clinical benefits there are also the environmental benefits of reduced travel to and from the hospital setting. There are limitations to this change in practice including the need for repeat appointments if a telemedicine facilitated contact is not adequate and the perpetuation of inequality for vulnerable families, the so called “digital divide”. Due to the increase in the use of telemedicine it is important that clinicians develop effective consultation practices including appropriate selection of patients, technical setup and consultation tools. In order to ensure trainees are developing appropriate skills in telemedicine, educational opportunities should be developed including structured assessment tools to allow the demonstration of competence in this area.