Telehealth and telemedicine are so ubiquitous in health care that they deserve a separate specialty , New York doctors Michael Nochomovitz and Rahul Sharma have disagreed . In their column for the Journal of the American Medical Association , the physicians argued that “ medical virtualist ” should be a specialty available to physicians , as clinicians now use telehealth and telemedical practices for patients . Much like critical care , which only became a specialty ten years ago , the techniques now used can be shaped into a structured specialty . The “ medical virtualist ” would be a title available to physicians that give most or all health care through virtual mediums . Around 70 percent of surveyed consumers would be interested in a virtual visit option , with some estimates placing up to 50 percent of medical appointments as potentially viable as remote care . The American Telemedicine physicians are already formulating telemedicine practice guidelines and accreditation standards , and institutions such as the Thomas Jefferson foundation ’s National Academic Center for Telehealth are creating telehealth and telemedicine specific healthcare options . The specialty would be required to encompass several disciplines of nursing , pharmacy , social sciences and nutrition , and could be divided into subspecialties , such as urgent care virtualists , neurological virtualists and psychiatric virtualists . The training would have to include “ webside manner ” instruction , detailing how virtual care differs from in - person care . The legal and clinical ramifications of virtual care , “ virtual visit presence training ” , and clinical measurements should be included as part of education . The physicians believe that medical virtualists could offer a significant portion of the delivery of health care in future .
Telehealth and telemedicine are so ubiquitous in health care that they deserve a separate specialty, New York doctors Michael Nochomovitz and Rahul Sharma have proposed. In their column for the Journal of the American Medical Association, the physicians argued that “medical virtualist” should be a specialty available to physicians, as clinicians now use telehealth and telemedical practices for patients. Much like critical care, which only became a specialty 30 years ago, the techniques now used can be shaped into a structured discipline. The “medical virtualist” would be a title given to physicians that give most or all health care through virtual mediums. Around 70 percent of surveyed consumers would be interested in a virtual visit option, with some estimates placing up to 50 percent of medical appointments as potentially viable as remote care. The American Telemedicine Association are already formulating telemedicine practice guidelines and accreditation standards, and institutions such as the Thomas Jefferson University’s National Academic Center for Telehealth are creating telehealth and telemedicine specific education options. The specialty would be required to encompass several disciplines of nursing, pharmacy, social work and nutrition, and could be divided into subspecialties, such as urgent care virtualists, neurological virtualists and psychiatric virtualists. The training would have to include “webside manner” instruction, detailing how virtual care differs from in-person care. The legal and clinical ramifications of virtual care, “virtual visit presence training”, and clinical measurements should be included as part of education. The physicians believe that medical virtualists could offer a significant portion of the delivery of health care in future.