Future Directions
The challenges in patient care created by COVID-19 have enabled a more
rapid and ubiquitous integration of telemedicine into medical practice
than ever before. The increased emphasis on telemedicine visits will
likely permanently shape the future of medicine due to increasing
familiarity with telemedicine by both patients and providers as a result
of COVID-19. Many patients in the present survey stated they would
continue to use telemedicine even after a return to some semblance to
normalcy under the conditions that the decision to conduct a visit via
telemedicine is patient-centered. They expressed concern that access to
in-person office visits for issues otherwise deemed appropriate for
telemedicine could be influenced by financial factors or insurance
companies and that this would come at a cost to the doctor-patient
relationship and patient satisfaction. As telemedicine becomes more
engrained in medical practice, it will be necessary to transparently
communicate with patients and maintain patient and provider discretion
in the decision to conduct a telemedicine visit.
Furthermore, training and education in telemedicine will need to be
augmented at all levels of medical education. Currently, telehealth
training in medical school curricula is largely
missing37 and there are limited guidelines for how to
best conduct a telemedicine visit, specifically in otolaryngology. To
address this, we previously published a set of practice guidelines for
telemedicine for head and neck cancer patients.39