TELEHEALTH
Emergency Physicians as Telehealth Leaders: EM’s Role in Shaping Digital Health Care SAEM PULSE | MARCH-APRIL 2024
By Tony Fabiano, MD
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As emergency physicians, our adaptability, innovative mindset, and comfort with uncertainty have played a pivotal role in the growth and success of our specialty. These attributes not only prepare us for excellence in the emergency department (ED) but also extend our expertise beyond the traditional emergency department setting, uniquely positioning us for the expanding domain of telehealth. Telehealth’s potential in emergency medicine goes beyond virtual urgent care, remote triage, e-consults, and providing critical emergency medicine
expertise to remote and underserved areas. More profoundly, it represents our role in shaping an increasingly digital and decentralized health care model, causing ripples across all specialties.
emergency physicians, we could pivot from being the last line of defense to becoming proactive architects in a more accessible and efficient health care system?
On the ground floor of the house of medicine, we face the repercussions of inaccessible health care daily. We witness the consequences when patients cannot access the care they need, leading them to our emergency departments when their primary care physician is unavailable, requiring a squad when transportation is an issue, and turning to us when they have nowhere else to go. What if, as
Telehealth is not just a tool; it’s a gateway to crafting the future of health care, enhancing both patient and provider experiences. However, this evolution demands visionary leadership — leaders who are innovative, adaptable, capable of highstakes decision-making, and adept at fostering cross-specialty collaboration. Emergency physicians embody these qualities, and with looming workforce