COVID-19 has fast forwarded a lot of innovation and Telehealth is here to stay as a routine form of patient interaction. Some good guidance material has been developed to assist us during the pandemic peaks. This guide was produced by WHO and is particularly important for our consultations with adolescents and their families.
Extract / Overview
Teleconsultations are increasingly part of global health care; however, there are few resources to guide best practice for their use with children and adolescents. This document is intended to provide practical guidance to health-care professionals (HCPs) in planning, setting up and conducting teleconsultations with infants, children, adolescents and their families or caregivers. It outlines a range of clinical and non-clinical factors for deciding when a teleconsultation is appropriate.
Teleconsultations involve the use of information and communications technology to provide clinical services to clients by an HCP without an in-person visit. Teleconsultations can be categorized as synchronous (occurring in real-time by videoconference, telephone or platforms such as WhatsApp and Facetime) or asynchronous (transmission of health data, such as health history, test results or images, through an electronic communications system with no real-time or live interaction). This guidance focuses on synchronous teleconsultation.
This guide does not make recommendations about the diagnosis or treatment of conditions and is not intended to replace sound clinical judgement. It does not include information on health-care services delivered with use of a computer program, app or social network site, nor does it include information on use of telehealth for consultation between HCPs when a client is not present or for medical education.
Download the Guide
How to plan and conduct telehealth consultations with children and adolescents and their families (1.6mb pdf)
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
