As face-to-face teaching in hospitals and clinics declined with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Weill Cornell Medical College quickly developed innovative telemedicine courses that enabled medical students to participate in patient care remotely, while preparing them for post-pandemic careers with enhanced digital health options.
The development of real-time interactive telemedicine (RITE) courses for medical students, led by Joseph Safdieh, MD, Gertrude Feil Associate Dean of Curricular Affairs, and Yoon Kang, MD, Richard P. Cohen, MD, associate professor of medical education and senior associate dean for education, enabled students to safely participate in critical clinical care activities and rotations in various medical specialties during the height of the pandemic, according to an article written by six Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members and published April 22 in Medical Education Online.
Before the pandemic, Weill Cornell Medical College offered telemedicine courses, but few of them allowed students to apply their knowledge in direct virtual patient care. In late March 2020, the administration invited faculty to submit proposals for RITE courses and required that they include key aspects such as remote care, follow-up activities, and measurable performance standards.
Each RITE course was four weeks in length and included patient care activities in ambulatory and hospital medicine, psychiatry, and gynecology. The medical students made a critical contribution to the care of the COVID-19 team by maintaining virtual contact with hospital patients who were suspected or tested positive for the virus during the non-visiting period, and who were then assigned to recovering patients. Medical students also supported frontline care by performing clinical tasks remotely.
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