The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog

The Covid-19 pandemic thrust telehealth into the mainstream as it posed a potential solution for people to still seek healthcare while safely remaining inside their homes. As the public health emergency heads into its third year, many states are seizing the opportunity to update their telemedicine policy and make several telemedicine expansions permanent. One such expansion is audio-only telehealth visits, which are those conducted over the phone, and do not include a visual component.

Interacting with patients while they are in their familiar home surroundings is much more common today than it was 2 years ago.  In fact, 70% of patients have the option for a telehealth visit as a criterion for selecting a primary care provider. The most common home telehealth encounter is done using videoconferencing technology.  Most commonly, the provider (or their staff) who has scheduled the meeting emails a link to the electronic meeting platform to the patient.  A tablet, smartphone, laptop or desktop computer can be used, but only if it has a camera. In the true sense of the word, the encounter is often a meeting and not an assessment.  However, in general, the purpose of the encounter is to assess the condition of the patient. There is a greater emphasis on using the visual capabilities of the camera and the skills of the provider to transform the meeting to into an assessment as necessary. 

When patients are critically ill, the intensive care unit (ICU) is there to help pull them back from the brink. As a medical student in the midst of pre-clinical coursework, especially in the middle of a global pandemic, the role of telecommunications within our world is ever more apparent. So how does this relate to delivering quality critical care to patients that may lack access to such care? ICU telemedicine. Before and even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been an instrumental tool in being able to deliver care while mitigating risk to both patients and providers alike, all while bringing intensive care into the modern era. However, there is very little awareness of this emerging field of telehealth as it pertains to ICU services.