Patient-Doctor Telemedicine: Virtual Care in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond

ABSTRACT

Project ECHO started as a strategy to disseminate knowledge about the treatment of Hepatitis C in New Mexico,2 but has now, as described in this issue, has become a broad-based educational strategy with 24 unique programs supported by the Missouri Telehealth Network. The strategy used for health care surge control is called forward triaging which enables protections for patient, provider, and community from exposure.3 In the pre-COVID era, routine home-based patient-doctor telemedicine care was limited due to lack of reimbursement. [...]patient and physicians were striving to reduce in-person visits for public health reasons.