Telemedicine and Education: Transforming Connections

I recently came across the article Telemedicine: A New Health Care Delivery System (Bashshur, Sanders & Shannon, 2000). Although it is not a recent publication, it raises issues that remain highly relevant today. One of these points concerns how, more than two decades ago, telemedicine already held enormous potential to transform health education — potential that still needs to be fully explored. Not merely as a technological tool, but as a teaching and learning strategy capable of crossing geographic boundaries, connecting people, knowledge, and practices.

Imagine a physician in a small rural town, a nurse in a riverside community, or a physiotherapist working at a health post far from major urban centers. Through telemedicine, these professionals can take part in training sessions, courses, and real-time case discussions with leading specialists, without leaving their location. This type of connection helps democratize access to continuing education and fosters the creation of collaborative networks among multidisciplinary teams spread across the country — and even around the world.

The article also drew my attention to something fundamental: working with telemedicine requires health professionals to develop new skills, a topic closely aligned with one of my current research lines on telemedicine, multilingualism, and multiculturalism. It is not enough to know diagnosis and treatment; one must also be able to navigate digital platforms, master video communication protocols, and, above all, understand how interaction changes when mediated by technology — particularly in relation to the challenges and transformations that affect listening and care. This should not be treated as an “extra,” but as an integral part of health curricula.

Another point that stood out was the role of telemedicine in educating patients and communities. It can be used to promote health, prevent disease, and encourage self-care — but this requires pedagogical materials and methods tailored to different audiences, ensuring clarity, accessibility, and cultural appropriateness.

Another aspect to consider is its impact on evidence-based education: with recorded teleconsultations, second-opinion sessions, and access to data from different contexts, the repertoire of experiences and cases available for study grows exponentially. This broadens the professional’s perspective and better prepares them to work in diverse scenarios.

Of course, the challenges cannot be overlooked, and they are not few. Ethical issues, legislation, and cultural and philosophical particularities play a significant role. It is necessary to address confidentiality, informed consent, and how to ensure quality care when the screen becomes the meeting point. These discussions must be embedded in academic training.

One aspect the article makes clear — and with which I completely agree — is that telemedicine can be much more than a resource for remote care. If well integrated into solid pedagogical strategies, it has the potential to revolutionize how we train health professionals: making it more connected, more collaborative, and far more aligned with the needs of our time.

Glaucio Aranha

Reference

Bashshur, R. L., Reardon, T. G., & Shannon, G. W. (2000). Telemedicine: a new health care delivery system. Annual review of public health, 21, 613–637. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.21.1.613