Defining core competencies for telehealth in healthcare higher education: A Delphi study

Background: While technology brings many opportunities for optimizing and improving health services, the lack of professionals trained in telehealth poses an important obstacle. Despite the existance of core competency frameworks for some healthcare professions, there is currently no consensus or guidelines on the core competencies that telehealth professionals should possess within the context of a higher education curriculum. This can hinder the potential benefits of healthcare service delivery. Objective: To establish a consensus on the core competencies in telehealth that should be integrated into higher education curricula for healthcare professionals. Methods: A three-round international eDelphi study was conducted. The panel comprised of a diverse group of experts in telehealth, clinicians, lectures and professors, administrators, and teaching coordinators. In the first round, an international steering committee developed a list of competencies that were presented to the panel members and they were asked to rate their level of agreement and suggest additional competencies. The consensus was established based on the competencies that achieved a high level of agreement (>75%) by the end of the third round. Results: We included 100 panellists from 18 different countries. By the end of the third round, we reached a consensus for 47 core competencies in a telehealth curriculum organized into 12 domains: principles of telehealth; care planning and management; assessment, diagnosis, and treatment; adequacy of the environment; professionalism; legal aspects; patient privacy; patient safety; access and equity; patient preference; technology; applicability of telehealth. Conclusion: We identified the core competencies in a telehealth curriculum organized into 12 domains to be used as a foundation for training future health professionals.