Photo By William Wheeler | Banner image promoting COVID-19 Lesson: Become Familiar with Digital Health...... read more read more
Subscribe
In March 2020, I started my year-long residency at Madigan Army Medical Center, where I am receiving top-notch training as part of my education to become a U.S. Army psychologist. My time at Madigan has also included helping respond to the initial COVID-19 outbreak – experiences definitely not part of standard training.
Those life-changing months have been illuminating in terms of steps the Military Health System might consider to improve military medical education and force readiness for future crises: specifically, increasing military medical providers’ familiarity with digital health technologies such as apps and virtual health (aka telehealth).
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted not just traditional K-12 and higher education but military education as well – especially for people in graduate-level military medical education programs such as myself. When COVID-19’s contagiousness made traditional in-person instruction impossible, my classmates and I had to adapt and learn along with our faculty how to switch to digital health technologies and virtual health platforms. We all climbed the vertical learning curve and joined many other MHS providers in proving we can quickly integrate new evidence-based tools and practices while maintaining clinical safety and effectiveness.
Two Lessons
Recognizing that digital health technologies and virtual health are becoming even more commonplace is a key lesson providers can take from the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology is getting more and more integrated into health care. Most clinics have the hardware they need to use videoconferencing; most computers either already have cameras and microphones or can easily add them. Apps are easy to find and many are free.
If we have more integrated capabilities for digital health technologies, trainees and providers alike will already have the experience they need to use them in future large-scale health crises, and transition to the field will be faster and easier.
A second and harder lesson is encouraging as many providers as possible, who are currently skeptical about digital health technologies, to become more comfortable in using these tools in clinical care. Providers who may choose older technology such as telephones for patient care instead of newer virtual platforms can have many reasons for doing so, including limited training, concerns about privacy and security, and just plain familiarity. We as a community must encourage each other that it is safe to stretch outside our comfort zones to learn and implement new evidence-based approaches on behalf of our patients.
A New Core Competency
As patients and providers gain more familiarity and trust with digital health technology and virtual health through the COVID-19 pandemic, the MHS medical community could possibly use this opportunity to consider how these insights can make a difference for generations to come – as a core competency in MHS graduate medical education curricula.
As a military medical professional in training, I must learn the core competencies the Military Health System has set for my field – in my case, psychology. Each core competency is structured to ensure every resident gets essential, standardized skills and experience they need to provide excellent care in operational situations. Some military and Department of Veteran Affairs graduate psychology training programs have traditional video teleconferencing training, but such training is not a core competency.
MHS COVID-19 response has indicated that digital health capabilities and virtual health are essential to the safety and readiness of service members and veterans. Now is the time to start considering how digital health technology and virtual health could be integrated as a core competency in training, so providers can become well-informed advocates for correctly and ethically using them.
Looking Forward
As MHS providers ponder the next phase of pandemic response, we can remind each other that it’s our job to meet patients where they are – which is increasingly at home online using digital health technologies and virtual tools.
My experience at Madigan during the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the necessity of remaining mentally flexible and operationally adaptable, and how integrating the right technologies can help with both. Learning to use virtual health and digital health technology has permanently shifted my perspective, proving that behavioral health care can occur outside traditional in-person methods and thereby potentially help many more people.
These experiences have taught me the importance of understanding emerging technologies and advocating for their appropriate integration in the standard practice of care – insights I aim to use during this current pandemic and throughout my career.
Army Capt. J. Bret Crittenden, Psy.D. is a clinical psychology resident at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
| Date Taken: | 08.12.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.12.2020 18:13 |
| Story ID: | 375850 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 113 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, COVID-19 Lesson: Become Familiar with Digital Health Technologies, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
