Is a Career in Telemedicine Right for You?

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Telemedicine traces its roots back to the days of providing medical advice by phone to the Australian outback and to astronauts in space from physicians back on earth. And Medicare has offered limited telemedicine services for decades for Medicare recipients living in rural or underserved areas.

Telemedicine can now connect specialists from large medical centers with rural providers.

The communication revolution — with email, chat, mobile phones and video conferencing — certainly hasn’t left the medical field untouched. Due to advances in broadband and security, telemedicine has branched out considerably from what it once was. Some telemedicine services are provided by insurers, or by physician practices or hospitals within the context of their patient services. And there are independent companies that offer telemedicine services.

All indications are that telemedicine offers comparable outcomes to in-person doctor visits for certain forms of care, plus the added benefits of convenience and lower cost. Here’s what you should know if you’re considering exploring medical jobs in the field of telemedicine. 

Who Is a Good Candidate for Telemedicine Work? 

Not everyone is cut out for success in telemedicine. Some providers simply work best when they’re in close proximity to their patients, taking in body language and other indicators that may not come across as clearly over a video conference call. And, obviously, some specialties (like surgery) can’t be provided long distance. Here are some of the characteristics of people who do well in medical jobs involving telemedicine:

• They have initiative and work well independently. Some telemedicine jobs allow physicians and other providers (like speech therapists) to work from home. 
• They have confidence. Closely related to initiative is the confidence to trust their perceptions and rely on their own training and intuition. Providers may not be able to easily bounce ideas off of co-workers, so earned confidence is essential.
• They have outstanding communication skills. Telemedicine may allow you to see your patient over a secure video link, but it’s not quite the same as being in the same room with someone. Therefore, you have to be able to communicate clearly and really listen to what your patients tell you, as well as pay close attention to their body language and affect.
• They’re willing to multitask. Of course, most medical jobs involve multitasking due to the stringent documentation requirements that surround medical care. In telemedicine, much of that multitasking is related to high call volume, which has to be handled with skill and reason in order to prioritize needs quickly.

Some Telemedicine Is Provider-to-Provider

Some telemedicine isn’t from provider to patient, but from medical professional to medical professionals. A radiologist, for example, may receive imaging studies in electronic form, review them, and submit the diagnosis back to the requesting physician. Or a specialist physician in a large central emergency department may provide consultation to physicians in a small, rural emergency department to make the determination about whether a patient needs to be transported. Likewise, pediatric specialists can be on call with smaller hospitals to help develop care plans for newborns with health issues. 

What to Look for in a Telemedicine Job

Only sign with a telemedicine provider if you’ll have the technical, nursing, and administrative support you need. 

When considering telemedicine work, it’s important to evaluate the same criteria you would apply to other medical jobs, with perhaps a greater emphasis on technological support. Any telemedicine provider with whom you choose to work should offer outstanding tech support at all times, period. After all, technology is your connection to patients, and you can’t provide them the help they need with technology that isn’t reliable.

If you’re a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, you should also ask about what kind of nursing support you’ll have. Many telemedicine nurses (like most other nurses) are extremely busy. Will they be available to call in prescriptions if the e-prescribing platform is down? Will nurses call you back right away? Any telemedicine provider of volume must have strong nursing support. 

And, speaking of volume, if telemedicine is to be your primary source of income, you have to choose a provider with sufficient volume. How many calls per day do they receive for states in which you are licensed? How many other providers are licensed in the states in which you’re licensed?

Licensing and Other Practical Matters

Some telemedicine providers take care of your malpractice coverage as part of their employment package, but you need to ask to make sure. If they don’t, then you’re responsible for maintaining your own malpractice coverage and ensuring that it covers you for telemedicine.

You will also need to be licensed in any state from which a patient calls you. To this end, some telemedicine providers help their physicians and nurses obtain licensing in multiple states. Some states are considering reciprocal physician licensing agreements similar to ones that exist for nurses, but such agreements are still in their early phases. 

Telemedicine Jobs Aren’t Just for Rural Residents

Telemedicine has evolved somewhat differently than what many imagined. While it makes sense to offer telemedicine services to people living in rural or remote areas, or to people who have issues with transportation, like the elderly or disabled, telemedicine is actually growing rapidly in popularity among younger, more urban people. Instead of treating a rancher with a mystery rash, you’re more likely to treat the young child of a millennial parent who doesn’t want to load all three kids into the car to have an earache treated. That said, some hospital-to-hospital telemedicine services are specifically designed to address the needs of rural or remote hospitals where specialty care is limited or nonexistent. 

Specialties That Go Well with Telemedicine

As telemedicine evolves, it is becoming clearer which specialties go well with telemedicine, and which do not. Here are a few types of specialty telemedicine that are becoming more popular:

• Teleradiology – so radiologists can provide their services from a single location
• Telepathology – for pathologists to offer diagnosis, education, and research
• Telecardiology – where EKGs are transmitted electronically for remote consultation by cardiology specialists
• Teledermatology – since it’s easier to transmit high-quality digital imagery now
• Telepsychiatry – which can help patients who live in underserved areas obtain the psychiatric care they need

The technology of telemedicine is evolving faster than legislation and legal structures can keep up. Nevertheless, it is expanding because of the convenience, cost savings, and access it allows, and legislative efforts are ongoing. Medical jobs in telemedicine cover a range of services and specialties, and for some physicians and other providers, telemedicine is a great fit, career-wise.

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