to students while still allowing for adequate social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many medical schools have shifted to alternate forms of virtual curriculum and are still able to engage in meaningful telehealth encounters with patients. Medication assisted treatment (MAT) is the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) with medications, often in combination with behavioral therapy As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic the use of telemedicine has been granted by the Drug Enforcement Administration to start or maintain people OUD on buprenorphine (trade name Suboxone) via telemedicine without the need for an initial in-person examination. On March 31, 2020, QuickMD became the first national TeleMAT service in the United States to provide Medication-assisted Treatment with Suboxone online—without the need of an in-person visit; with others announcing to follow soon. Major developments In policy Telehealth is a modern form of health care delivery. Telehealth breaks away from traditional health care delivery by using modern telecommunication systems including wireless communication methods. Traditional health is legislated through policy to ensure the safety of medical practitioners and patients. Consequently, since telehealth is a new form of health care delivery that is now gathering momentum in the health sector, many organizations have started to legislate the use of telehealth into policy. In New Zealand, the Medical Council has a statement about telehealth on their website. This illustrates that the medical council has foreseen the importance that telehealth will have on the health system and have started to introduce telehealth legislation to practitioners along with government. Transition to mainstream Traditional use of telehealth services has been for specialist treatment. However, there has been a paradigm shift and telehealth is no longer considered a specialist service. This development has ensured that many access barriers are eliminated, as medical professionals are able to use wireless communication technologies to deliver health care. This is evident in rural communities. For individuals living in rural communities, specialist care can be some distance away, particularly in the next major city. Telehealth eliminates this barrier as health professionals are able to conduct medical consultations through the use of wireless communication technologies. However, this process is dependent on both parties having Internet access. Telehealth allows the patient to be monitored between physician office visits which can improve patient health. Telehealth also allows patients to access expertise which is not available in their local area. This remote patient monitoring ability enables patients to stay