Future Directions
The challenges in patient care created by COVID-19 have enabled a more rapid and ubiquitous integration of telemedicine into medical practice than ever before. The increased emphasis on telemedicine visits will likely permanently shape the future of medicine due to increasing familiarity with telemedicine by both patients and providers as a result of COVID-19. Many patients in the present survey stated they would continue to use telemedicine even after a return to some semblance to normalcy under the conditions that the decision to conduct a visit via telemedicine is patient-centered. They expressed concern that access to in-person office visits for issues otherwise deemed appropriate for telemedicine could be influenced by financial factors or insurance companies and that this would come at a cost to the doctor-patient relationship and patient satisfaction. As telemedicine becomes more engrained in medical practice, it will be necessary to transparently communicate with patients and maintain patient and provider discretion in the decision to conduct a telemedicine visit.
Furthermore, training and education in telemedicine will need to be augmented at all levels of medical education. Currently, telehealth training in medical school curricula is largely missing37 and there are limited guidelines for how to best conduct a telemedicine visit, specifically in otolaryngology. To address this, we previously published a set of practice guidelines for telemedicine for head and neck cancer patients.39