Sometimes it's good to talk

We have seen a real shift in communication methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a surge in cases, many healthcare systems and clinicians are adopting videoconferencing to facilitate clinical appointments and meetings (Webster, 2020). Such is the increase in virtual consultations in the UK that Scotland reported a 1000% increase in videoconferencing in a 2-week period at the beginning of the pandemic.

I have personally been an advocate of telemedicine for a number of years. I am fortunate to manage an out-of-hours (OOH) stroke telemedicine service across the East of England. For the last 10 years, we have used a secure videoconference telemedicine service to link seven of the region's hospitals to an on-call stroke consultant. Using telemedicine, we make best use of the limited stroke consultant expertise to support local decision-making for acute ischaemic stroke patients, specifically those who may benefit most from thrombolysis. Telemedicine allows us to provide healthcare to patients who would have previously been required to travel to the consultant—with telemedicine, we can bring the consultant to the patient.