Abstract:

Introduction:
We utilized a learning management system (LMS) in an innovative way to support an interprofessional and customizable curriculum for telehealth.
Background
The pandemic increased the need for telehealth, however many health professions did not have training in telehealth. There were also many academic programs for health professions that did not include telehealth in their curriculum. Additionally, interprofessional competencies including communication, teamwork, and roles and responsibilities were rarely included in telehealth training. Each health profession also has different scope of practice that needed individual consideration. There was a need for a telehealth course that could be delivered virtually, customized for specific health professions, included interprofessional competencies, and could be easily updated by the health system.

Methodology:
Interprofessional faculty, health care providers, and health system administrators collaborated to produce a telehealth and virtual care course with the following:
a) a flexible online delivery for students or providers,
b) content that could stand alone or be embedded,
c) a customizable format,
d) experiential learning, and
e) a way for easy adaptation to evolving virtual care.

The course consisted of an introduction to and best practices for telehealth. There was also a section on interprofessional telehealth. The course included assessments such as pre/post quizzes, performance rubrics to measure outcomes, and evaluations for formative development. This part of the course was a delivered through a LMS that programs could import, add customized content and experiential learning, and embed in the curriculum where relevant. This master course could be modified and updated as telehealth practices and policies evolved.
Once the course was developed, a pilot was conducted by a prosthetics-orthotics program. The telehealth course was imported from the LMS and embedded within an existing course in the prosthetics-orthotics curriculum. The introduction, best practices, and interprofessional components of the telehealth course were used as is. An experiential simulation was added for learners to conduct a basic virtual evaluation visit with a patient model including background and history and using an evaluation measurement form specific to prosthetics. Learners also had to determine the next step in the treatment plan for the patient model. Finally, the learners had to make a prescription recommendation to a physician for the patient model. A rubric was used by an observer to evaluate performance. The treatment plan and prescription recommendation were graded for accuracy.

Results:
Learners showed positive knowledge gains for the introduction, best practices, and interprofessional components of the telehealth course. The rubric scores indicated positive performance with the model patient. Learners also had positive comfort and confidence score in the course evaluation for taking a virtual telehealth history and physical and an evaluation measurement. Overall, learner responses were positive and suggestions for future implementation included adding additional virtual visits with the patient.

Conclusion:
We successfully utilized a learning management system in an innovative way to support an interprofessional and customizable module for telehealth. This model could be used by other academic programs for health professions and health systems for their trainees.

Keywords:

Learning management system, LMS, telehealth, interprofessional education, IPE.