Telehealth in Response to the Rural Health Disparity.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced lockdown and social distancing measures that made new methods of healthcare essential. Telehealth was introduced as a temporary measure but is being considered as a more permanent form of healthcare, particularly in rural areas, to provide more equitable healthcare. A survey was conducted on 200 rural dwellers (residents) regarding their experience with rural healthcare, any barriers to adequate healthcare, and openness to telehealth. The results demonstrated interest in telehealth and predominately positive experiences with telehealth in the areas where there was need and lack of access to healthcare, more commonly expressed in the younger age group. Quality healthcare should be equitable and available for every individual irrespective of zip code or the county they live. Telehealth is capable of bridging the gap of lack of access and transportation for individuals in rural areas to meet their healthcare needs in a timely fashion in the coming years.

Residency Exposure to Emergency Medical Services Concepts Through Immersion, Interprofessional Collaboration and Assembly Line Education.

INTRODUCTION: The use of innovative strategies for teaching, such as flipped classroom and assembly line education, has become increasingly popular to engage learners. Residency education has been incorporating these methods to master content, develop critical skills, and improve professionalism. METHODS: We created a three-part immersion experience to teach Emergency Medical Services (EMS) concepts to emergency medicine residents. Residents participated in a mass casualty incident (MCI) in which they were tasked to triage patients and allocate resources in a hospital to treat 11 victims properly. The second portion was to manage a cardiac arrest scenario in the field with the tools our EMS colleagues had available. Lastly, they were asked to create short, high-yield lectures about topics related to EMS. RESULTS: Pre- and post-test surveys were used to assess the effectiveness of the experience in teaching residents core EMS topics. It was determined that residents not only felt more prepared for an MCI, but they also were more comfortable with their skills as a result of participating in this activity. CONCLUSION: Our study further highlights the benefits of non-traditional techniques in residency education. The use of immersion experiences was unique and overall a positive experience for learners. The techniques used in this activity allowed residents to gain confidence in more challenging topics for emergency physicians. This format could be applied to many more topics in the future as an innovative education technique.