Jefferson Health Fellowship Targets Telehealth Administration

The rapid rise of telehealth services has spawned a new academic fellowship at Jefferson Health, which includes Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University. Working in partnership with the telehealth company Teladoc Health, Jefferson Health's telehealth academic fellowship includes a specialized curriculum for physicians interested in a career providing care remotely.

The new fellowship, reportedly only the second such fellowship in the country, focuses on the administrative side of virtual care. [Jefferson launched a fellowship focusing on the clinical aspects of telehealth several years ago.] The new initiative is funded by Teladoc, which will help design the curriculum. The program has two separate pathways: one led and held on-site at Jefferson Health and the other designed and delivered by Teladoc. The latter program will provide training on leadership, including driving consumer behavior; telehealth policy leadership and advocacy; software innovation; clinical-quality oversight; and management.

Judd Hollander, M.D., senior vice president of health care delivery innovation at Thomas Jefferson University, said in a statement that the school has established a multidisciplinary program for telehealth, and the next step is to educate future leaders so that they can master telehealth and keep providing the care patients need, when and how they need it.