Dr. Arora had a brainstorm. Since he couldn’t possibly see every patient who needed his care, he created a free telehealth educational model to mentor doctors across the state on how to treat the disease. From those humble beginnings, Project ECHO has grown into a global operation covering numerous specialties and with participants in 180 countries.
Other programs are offering similar provider-to-provider assistance to overcome the barriers created by a shortage of specialists in many areas.
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Making telehealth work for all physicians
Some physicians, such as Dr. Arora, have been making use of telehealth for years. In other cases, doctors turned to the technology only because of the pandemic, and in many cases they went back exclusively to office visits once COVID-19 numbers dropped.
What was it that separated those who embraced telemedicine from those who dropped it as soon as they could? We have found that the answer is as simple as this: Doctors who were successful using telemedicine continued to use it, and those who weren’t successful abandoned it.
Clearly, the goal needs to be to make telehealth work successfully for all physicians. The way health organizations can begin to do that includes integrating telehealth into the clinical workflows and providing adequate support and training.
Achieve that and we will have gone a long way toward helping to alleviate the physician shortage and the many challenges it presents.
About the author: Brandon M. Welch, Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of Doxy.me, a telemedicine software company, and co-author of “Telehealth Success: How to Thrive in the New Age of Remote Care” with Dr. Aditi U. Joshi.
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