To safely and effectively treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians and other health care professionals are urged to use telemedicine for patient visits as much as possible.
In fact, under a statewide disaster declaration, the Texas Medical Board has declared that telemedicine – including the
use of telephone only – may be used to establish a physician-patient relationship.
To guide physicians who are struggling to get started, Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force member Ogechika Alozie, MD, and TMA staff expert Shannon Vogel recorded a TMA Practice Well podcast about adopting telemedicine.
In addition, the task force has published a document to help you get started with telemedicine.
Dr. Alozie and Ms. Vogel discuss how he uses telemedicine for his patient encounters and what specific tasks his staff does to assist. He also mentions third-party telemedicine platforms and those integrated with an electronic medical record system.
He and Ms. Vogel even discuss how to make a telemedicine visit feel like a face-to-face visit.
Dr. Alozie suggests physicians go for it once they’ve determined how to best use telemedicine.
“You can’t score unless you shoot,” Dr. Alozie said in the podcast. “At some point you have to just rip the band-aid off and jump and go get it.”
You can also find the latest news, resources, and government guidance on the coronavirus outbreak by visiting TMA’s COVID-19 Resource Center regularly.
Last Updated On
April 01, 2020
Originally Published On
March 25, 2020