Unique Medical School Course Examines Telehealth

As a second year medical student, Heyward Mack is passionate about medicine and practicing in his community. When he was younger, his mother was diagnosed with kidney failure. From that moment forward, his success in math and sciences would fuel his passion to study medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, South Carolina.

Mack is also a self-proclaimed technology nerd. In a recent interprofessional course, “Telehealth Teams of the Future,” he would learn more about how technology, or telehealth specifically, can be used to better deliver health care services. This unique course allows students like Mack to learn about telehealth equipment, telehealth history, and the impact telehealth can have on bringing doctors together to provide care to patients, despite geographic distances.

The “Telehealth Teams of the Future” course is unlike any other in the state, because it is the only course geared entirely to telehealth and telemedicine. While students complete most of the course online, parts of the course involve sessions at MUSC’s Simulation Center, where students can experience a variety of telehealth tools first-hand.

The course allows students like Mack to know what tools are available to them as they consider what they want to practice and where they want to practice.

“I believe that you should be afforded medicine, and top-notch medicine. It shouldn't be based on your geographic location. So telemedicine or telehealth really allows us to provide care to areas that are under-serviced,” says Mack.