PC1265: Pediatric Resident and Medical Student Telemedicine Training: A Quality Improvement Study

Purpose/Objectives: Patient demand for telemedicine rose exponentially during the pandemic, necessitating rapid training of providers to incorporate telehealth into their practice. Pediatric medical students and residents are not trained routinely in telemedicine. Increased demand for virtual care spawned by the pandemic is expected to remain, underscoring the need for healthcare organizations to develop structured training programs that meet the changing educational requirements of the next generation of pediatricians. These pediatricians thus will have the ability to implement telemedicine seamlessly, providing routine care to a new generation of patients, while meeting anticipated demand for virtual care during future national emergencies.
Our healthcare system’s telemedicine team pediatricians have developed and implemented a medical student and resident training program aimed toward alleviating this shortfall in physician education. As there are no formal guidelines regarding best practices for training in telemedicine, our goal for this quality improvement study is to evaluate our teaching methods and to understand how we might improve the process for future students and residents.

Design/Methods: Launched in 2021, the Pediatric Telemedicine Elective now is offered for our participating pediatric residents and university medical students. Participants work directly with the seven members of our on-demand telemedicine physician team and its leadership during their 2- or 4-week training rotation. Training includes clinical and technical orientation, current policy and licensing requirements, best practices and clinical guidelines for meeting quality standards for virtual care, and limitations. Participants receive hands-on experience through observed, proctored, and independently supervised visits.
Training is preceded and followed by a survey, delivered virtually to each resident and student, and evaluated by the telemedicine team pediatricians. The 30-item survey is designed to address participant experiences and knowledge of telemedicine.
The survey includes yes/no, true/false, and multiple-choice items, including questions pertaining to prior experience with telemedicine, terminology knowledge, belief in the ability to perform a virtual exam, limitations of telemedicine and knowledge of federal policies pertaining to telemedicine care. Resident/student feedback from the survey contributes to the rotation’s ongoing refinement.

Results: To date, 10 medical students and three residents have completed the training and surveys. Survey data are being collected on additional cohorts and will be shared in this presentation. Outcomes from this QI study will be reported in alignment with the SQUIRE framework for reporting quality improvement outcomes in healthcare.

Conclusion/Discussion: Medical student and resident training program rotations for telemedicine in the United States are rare, despite the growing popularity of virtual care. Rapid adoption of telemedicine has increased the urgency for implementing physician education programs nationwide. Such programs afford the ability to educate the next generation of physicians on delivering high-quality pediatric care through virtual modalities, shaping the technology as an essential component of connected health when offered within the child’s medical home.