Integrating tele-urgent care in undergraduate medical education: a partnership between the US Department of Veterans Affairs and academia

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic made clinical rotations for medical students difficult to maintain in person. Several medical schools adapted to the pandemic by providing some training in telemedicine. The use of telemedicine has grown exponentially in the United States in recent years and COVID-19 acted as an accelerant for its growth. What remains largely unknown is the longterm value and sustainability of telemedicine in medical education. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the value of integrating a clinical virtual urgent care rotation in the training of medical students. Methods: The authors examined retrospective descriptive data from Veterans who utilized telemedicine services from a virtual urgent care clinic. The analysis included 2,512 patient episodes with 23 medical students between July 1, 2020 to April 30, 2023. The study examined trends in monthly average first contact resolution (FCR) and tested whether the first contact resolution from the medical student rotation was statistically different from the Clinical Contact Center (CCC) overall. Results: The retrospective descriptive analysis found that the monthly first contact resolution for patients seen by medical students was approximately 80%. This average was not statistically different than the 18,000 patient episodes that occurred within the CCC during the same period. Informal feedback from the students was positive, and they all presented on wellreceived capstone topics such as tele-critical care, tele-cardiology, tele-orthopedics, and a history and critical analysis of telemedicine. Conclusions: This study confirmed the value of telemedicine in medical education and the call to medical schools to consider incorporating formal education on telemedicine in the medical student curricula. As medicine moves toward incorporating telemedicine in specialty practices, having it as part of medical education will be a valuable inclusion for future physicians.