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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jian" data-source="post: 9712045" data-attributes="member: 78087">Again, from my experience - telehealth means a lot of things, but it usually means synchronous remote communication (a phone call or video call) but it can also mean asynchronous (email, basically). A phone or video consult - and I’ve done thousands of these in the last 5 years - is helpful for limited tasks and triage for a face to face appointment but is absolutely no replacement for a F2F. They happen because they’re more convenient for the patient and sometimes for the clinician. If all the patient needs is a sick note or medication review, great. If they need even anything as simple as “do I have a chest infection” then they need examination and thus a F2F. In the UK, they’ve mostly been deployed en masse to deal with the massive rise in patient demand for appointments after Covid (patients now ask for consultations about 10/year rather than more like 5/year before Covid or right now in Canada) and I personally think they’ve been deployed in desperation, haphazardly to meet the demand. I think we still don’t really know how to use them most effectively or appropriately.</blockquote>