Telehealth and Emergency Medicine: A Consensus Conference to Map the Intersection of Emergency Medicine and Telehealth

Telehealth is an innovative application of technology in healthcare, including a broad range of healthcare services and modalities such as live video, asynchronous store-and-forward, remote patient monitoring, and mobile health (mHealth). Use of telehealth in emergency medicine (EM) is increasing and has numerous applications to improve patient outcomes. It has been incorporated into EM practice through provider-to-provider programs to leverage expertise to fill gaps in care at sites external to emergency departments and direct-to-patient programs to provide care to patients via web-based platforms.

EM serves as a microcosm of the healthcare system and can provide valuable insight as to how telehealth could solve some of healthcare’s current and future problems. Telehealth’s role expanded in EM during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more to learn about how the specialty of EM can incorporate telehealth; similarly, EM must be considered when telehealth-related legislation and policies are made. A robust research agenda is important to guide the fields of both telehealth and EM. This Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Consensus Conference, an annual research conference, offered a unique opportunity to synthesize a consensus statement and research agenda to support future clinical practice and evidence-based investigation.

The specific aims of the conference were as follows:

• Summarize the current state of telehealth in EM.
• Develop actionable educational solutions for telehealth in EM practitioners.
• Develop actionable research solutions for telehealth in EM.

The 2020 “Telehealth and Emergency Medicine: A Consensus Conference to Map the Intersection of Emergency Medicine and Telehealth” conference brought together providers, patients, and representatives from the American Association of Medical Colleges, National Quality Foundation, Society for Education and Research in Connected Health Society, Telehealth Resources Centers, and many other organizations that influence telehealth and EM. The conference included nationally recognized keynote speakers, breakout group planning sessions, and a consensus building process. Topics explored were: 1) healthcare access, 2) quality and safety, 3) educational needs and outcomes, 4) research facilitation, and 5) impact of telehealth on the EM workforce. Using a modified Delphi process, conference participants came to consensus with a final list of 24 research questions spanning the five breakout group topics. Due to the COVID pandemic, the conference was postponed to September 2020, which allowed new research or insights from the explosion of telehealth during the pandemic to be incorporated into the discussions (e.g., “what lessons can we learn from the expansion of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic?”). The conference proceedings manuscript has been accepted for publication by Academic Emergency Medicine.