National Survey of Telemedicine Curricula Among Emergency Medicine Residencies

Telehealth continues to reshape healthcare delivery in the United States. Recognizing its growing importance and the need for advances in education, the Association of American Medical Colleges released telehealth competencies in 2021, and the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) recently proposed a structured telemedicine experience as part of all emergency medicine (EM) residencies. Despite these efforts, it is unclear whether EM residencies have adopted these new educational mandates. Our primary objective in this study was to understand whether (and how) U.S. EM residencies have implemented telehealth education.

We developed a cross-sectional, national survey to describe existing telehealth curricula among ACGME-accredited EM residencies. Program directors were surveyed via email. Our primary outcome measure was the percentage of residencies with existing telehealth curricula. Secondary outcomes assessed telehealth curricula emphases, implementation barriers, and telehealth's perceived importance to EM training.

Of 282 U.S.-based EM residencies, 67 programs responded (24% response rate). Of these, only five (7.5%) reported having a formal telehealth curriculum. Programs with curricula were likely to teach real-time telehealth skills (80%) and focus on data collection (80%), patient safety (80%), and communication (60%). Programs without curricula identified prioritization of other curricula (76%), insufficient faculty expertise (65%), and limited infrastructure (50%) as barriers. We also found that 61% of programs viewed telehealth education as of limited importance to EM training. At the same time, program directors expressed interest in the development of asynchronous telehealth content from trusted national EM organizations (60%).

Formal telehealth curricula remain the exception rather than the rule among U.S. EM residencies. Despite accreditation bodies urging its adoption, telehealth education faces multiple barriers, including limited faculty expertise, lack of telehealth infrastructure, and low perceived education importance. Our research suggests that national organizations may play a key role in providing early telehealth education while programs adapt to these new educational requirements.