Objective:

We aim to incorporate telemedicine into New York Medical College’s (NYMC) curriculum, with a focus of engaging clerkship students in Westchester Medical Center’s (WMC) Teleneurology Clinic to gain telehealth competencies.

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a surge in telehealth services that has reshaped healthcare delivery. Telehealth offers substantial benefits to patients and healthcare providers. WMC opened their Teleneurology Clinic in August 2022 for physicians to provide follow-up care to patients presenting with headaches or transitioning from inpatient to outpatient care post-stroke. As telemedicine becomes more prevalent, the training of healthcare providers should adopt a curriculum that incorporates clinical training in that area, beginning with medical students’ education.

Design/Methods:

We reviewed telehealth materials by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and literature on telehealth in medical school curriculum on the PubMed database. Search keywords included “telehealth OR telemedicine,” “teleneurology,” “neurology,” “curriculum OR education OR clerkship,” “medical student,” and “OSCE.” Medical education faculty were consulted while writing a teleneurology encounter for an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Results:

We wrote a teleneurology patient encounter designed to be a telehealth station in the neurology OSCE administered to third-year medical students at NYMC. This encounter mirrors patient presentations routinely seen at WMC’s Teleneurology Clinic, which medical students would participate in during the neurology clerkship. The rubric assesses students based on the domains of telehealth competencies outlined by the AAMC.

Conclusions:

Telehealth concepts should be introduced within patient care modules in preclinical years to provide students with essential telemedicine knowledge. During clinical years, medical students engage in telehealth delivery during their clerkships or as its own elective. In both stages of the curriculum, students can be assessed through telehealth-focused OSCEs. We will pilot our teleneurology OSCE in late 2023 with neurology residents at WMC, and then with third-year medical students at NYMC in early 2024.