Telemedicine training among geriatric fellowship graduates: a needs assessment for future curriculum development.

BACKGROUND

Geriatricians are expected to use telemedicine to deliver high-quality care to older adults. Yet, little is known about the training geriatric fellows received prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and their preparedness to care for older adults virtually. This paper discusses a needs assessment of alumni of a geriatric medicine fellowship program conducted to identify core telemedicine competencies and guide the development of telemedicine curricula in geriatric fellowship.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional survey study administered online to alumni (2005-2020) of an academic geriatric medicine fellowship program in the U.S.

RESULTS

Fifty-two alumni of the fellowship responded to the survey (50%). Ninety-eight percent (98%) of respondents felt it was highly important for geriatric fellows to learn skills in telemedicine during fellowship. Respondents emphasized the importance of creating curricula that highlight how to perform a virtual comprehensive geriatric assessment, triage visit modality, and bill for telemedicine encounters.

DISCUSSION

Based on the findings of our needs assessment and guidelines developed to help ensure clinicians are proficient in telemedicine skills, we propose seven recommendations for the development of telemedicine curricula to align with existing competencies and help geriatricians meet the evolving needs of older adults.