Really positive to see the Royal College of General Practitioners have launched a Video Consultation Skills Course. I look forward to attending the first lectures on the 6th July 2017 at their HQ in Euston Square London.

Key aims of the course:

•   Understand the purpose of online/video consultations and triage
•   Provide knowledge and awareness for carrying out appropriate, cost effective and safe online consultations
•   Improve confidence in Online consultations
•   Develop an awareness of the communication and questioning skills required during an online video consultation
•   Discuss and practice safe and comprehensive history taking within a online triage context to ensure the  most appropriate outcome
•   Explore legal issues of online & video consultations including confidentiality, documentation and safety netting

Register here (from just £85).

mHealth Insights

So far there are no details on who will be presenting which is a bit surprising as you would’ve thought this is going to be key to the appeal/value of the course. I hope an invitation has been sent to us here at 3G Doctor (eg. coFounder Dr Fiona Kavanagh MRCGP) so that delegates can benefit from our 10+ years of experience offering documented video consultations to Patients in the UK and Ireland.

If I was deciding on a panel of presenters it would include:

Roy Lilley’s mother (would help ensure attendees never forget why Patients want to Facetime their GP).

Dr John Bachman MD, Professor of Primary Care at the Mayo Clinic (he has shared some incredible videos explaining the pioneering work his team have done to showcase best practice in online consulting).

Dr Richard Sills, Instant Medical History UK (a pioneer in the NHS who has worked tirelessly to advance how we let Patients help with the clerical information sharing part of the consultation)

Dr Rupert Bankard, a GP who has shown how providing Patients with access to clinically validated medical history taking questionnaires is helping NHS GPs to work at the top of their licence.

Dr Amir Hannan, a GP who has pioneered in providing Patients with medical records and understanding (because it makes no sense to be giving Patients video access to their GP before you provide them with access to their medical records).

While it’s positive that there’s a focus on safe and comprehensive history taking I’m surprised there’s no mention of history ‘giving’ because there’s nearly 50 years of evidence that shows Patients can and want to give their history and for the most part are years ahead of their GPs when it comes to familiarity with video calling.

It will be fascinating to attend this meeting as it could be that it highlights major weaknesses in the RCGP training eg. we know PC based video calling (think Skype) has been a colossal waste of effort and resources in the NHS and perhaps this course will help the RCGP appreciate the need to prioritise efforts to:

> Educate members on the mHealth opportunities as it’s clearly the use of mobile technology that is driving the capability to use video and securely communicate online  with Patients.

> Promote and educate members on the new home working opportunities that are emerging (as clearly there is very little point having Doctors travel to work in expensive medical practices to make video consults).

> Encourage and examine members on their use of their smartphones and the internet with Patients.

Revisit this page and click to refresh on the 6th July 2017 to see updates from the course as we’ll be attending and while I hope to record/livestream the event on YouTube/Hangout the organisers might not permit this so at a minimum I will be sharing notes.