Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the landscape of anesthesia care to involve telehealth, a tool that includes phone- and video-conferencing. Traditionally, pre-anesthesia consultations involve in person medical history-taking; laboratory testing or investigations; focused physical examination; and referral to other medical services to optimize the patient’s health prior to anesthetic procedures. The transition to incorporate virtual visits for not only patients living in rural and remote areas, but also local patients, prompts anesthesiologists to adapt their traditional practices to a new digital platform.
This lecture highlights best practices for virtual pre-anesthesia consultations.
The objectives of this course are:
- Review the components of traditional pre-anesthesia consultation
- Define telehealth and virtual anesthesia consultation
- Identify the advantages, challenges, and limitations of virtual visits
- Examine how current best practices of telemedicine may be adapted to anesthesia practice
- Develop best practices for virtual pre-anesthesia consultation