The Telephone & Telemedicine in Clinical Medicine: An Instrument of Opportunity & Risk

The Telephone & Telemedicine in Clinical Medicine: An Instrument of Opportunity & Risk

While the telephone can facilitate patient care, it can also be risky business for both the patient and the clinician, often with serious consequences that include patient complaints, legal action, and at worst, serious adverse clinical outcomes.

The goal of this telephone medicine course is to illustrate, using real-life case scenarios, potential areas of risk that can be eliminated or reduced to improve the outcome of clinical problems presented when encountering patients over the phone.

This course is designed for primary care physicians, family care and specialty physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners. Registrants participate in the learning process by answering multiple-choice questions that are dispersed throughout the case presentations. A variety of media, including audio clips of sample phone conversations, are presented to enhance the material.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to:

Review standards and protocols designed to reduce malpractice suits by improving the quality of care and service provided over the telephone in office-based practice Identify the areas of greatest risk in patient care Identify the key elements in providing the highest quality of telephone medicine Review the distinction between telephone medicine, telehealth, telemedicine, and direct-to-consumer telemedicine Describe practical tips for practitioners in non-face-to-face encounters with patients

Target Audience

This course is targeted to Primary Care Physicians, Physicians Assistants, Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Liability Insurance Carriers. This course may also be of interest to physicians who practice in Critical Care and Trauma, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Course Director

Harvey P. Katz, MD
Senior Associate, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine; Corresponding Member of the Faculty, Harvard Medical School