The Virtual Care Working Group was developed in September 2020 in response to a growing need to educate medical students on the different aspects and usages of virtual care in medicine, but more specifically in primary care. With the rise of virtual care due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this form of medicine must now be integrated into pre-clerkship and clerkship education. This group was developed to help bridge the current knowledge gap medical students have on this topic, in order to better prepare them for pre-clerkship clinical encounters, clerkship, and residency. 

 

Support for this working group was confirmed by Pamela Cirino, College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) Marketing Coordinator, Marketing and Membership Services, as well as Kerry Howell and Jeana MacLeod, Co-Chairs of the CFPC's Section of Medical Students (SOMS). 

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This website was kindly edited and reviewed by a group of 9 Family Medicine residents through the CFPC Section Of Residents (SOR), as well as Dr. Shawn Albers, a Family Medicine resident at Western University.  

 

This website will aim to discuss the following topics:

• Different types of virtual care (e.g. telehealth, video conferencing, health care apps) and the pros/cons of each modality

• Privacy/confidentiality in virtual care

• The benefits of virtual care in reducing barriers to access

• Approach to a virtual clinical encounter, including best practices and guidelines 

• Clinical Pearls of wisdom in a virtual care era, including troubleshooting/common FAQs

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We hope you enjoy, any questions or comments may be sent to ajane@qmed.ca or rpasricha@qmed.ca