We have seen what a large impact telemedicine has on healthcare through the pandemic. Starting this fall, the technology will be part of the curriculum at the Medical College of Georgia.

Emergency Medicine physician Dr. Matt Lyon is working on new curriculum that will train future doctors how to use telemedicine technology.

“This kind of training has to be incorporated into medical schools and into residencies,” Dr. Lyon says. “It is an essential part going forward. This is not going back. Telemedicine is the future.”

They are also working with other parts of the healthcare system. For example, they are working to see if dental faculty can use telehealth to see patients in oral emergencies.

Director of Population Health Lauren Williams says AU Health has roughly 1,200 providers using the AU Health Expresscare App now to see patients.

“We actually have medical students who are auditing our providers performance,” Williams says.

As if this time was nott strange enough, med students are now auditing their attending physicians in other words, students are grading their teachers in order to fine tune the COVID screening process.

“We will use the information to see where we have opportunities to improve on our training or on our education and then also if COVID does start back up again in the fall, we have a plan to really get in and train where we saw key areas of weakness or strengths,” Williams explains.

As part of pandemic medicine elective, med students have raised $15,000 to pay for PPE and care packages for hospital employees across the state.

“We kept getting donations and the more we were able to do, the more we were able to purchase,” says 4th year class president Susan Brands.

Brands and second year class president Idris Ali filmed a public service announcement to air soon. The message is simple, but could save lives.

“It’s kind of surreal right to think about the lasting impact the message may have, right? the advice really is invaluable,” Ali says.

“The reason we went into medical school is because we wanted to find a way to do some good in people’s lives,” says Brands.

The PSA in which they participated should air on NewsChannel 6 in the near future.