Fundamentals of telehealth: A learning compendium for residents

Background

Telehealth is an integral part of modern care delivery. Accordingly, accrediting bodies have recognized the importance of telehealth in trainee education. In 2021, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) published a report identifying telehealth learner core competencies in six domains: patient safety and appropriate use, access and equity, communication, data collection and assessment, ethical practices and legal requirements, and technology for telehealth. We present here a Fundamentals of Telehealth Resource Compendium for residents that fulfills these competencies.

Methods

The compendium was curated by a group of telehealth subject matter experts from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Telehealth Interest Group, through a structured iterative process. Authors performed a literature review for open-source telehealth educational resources. Each resource was rated for quality by two reviewers using the rMETRIQ score (Revised Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality). Resources with the highest composite rMETRIQ reviewer score were included in the final collection.

Results

Scores for resources ranged from 2 to 21 (with a maximum possible rMETRIQ score of 21). Of 201 resources reviewed and rated, 57 were included in the final collection. A Fundamentals of Telehealth section was added as an introduction (five resources)—these resources did not undergo the rMETRIQ scoring process.

Conclusions

This telehealth compendium is a resource from which residency programs can further tailor site-specific training. Alternatively, an individual can use this compendium as a self-study tool to gain a basic understanding of telehealth and its intersection with emergency medicine. Note that while this compendium is designed for the resident-level learner, it is easily adaptable to a learner of any level, as many underlying concepts remain the same.