Walking the Unmarked Path: On Developing an Independent Practice

Abstract

Telehealth represents the convergence of healthcare and technology. After decades evolving along the periphery, telehealth has more recently entered into an accelerated period of growth and captured the broad attention of healthcare, technology, government, and business sectors. As a result, the opportunities for a career in telehealth are very promising, but largely undefined outside of academic centers or large health systems. Even within these environments, the rapid pace of innovation has created new challenges of uncertainty with unintended consequences (e.g., meaningful use, e-prescribing) outpacing adequate guidance and leadership. This chapter explores my largely bushwhacked professional path of a doctor seeking to understanding how best to use technology in the care of his or her patients. With conventional systems and practice options becoming increasingly burdensome, I have sought to preserve the best parts of caregiving and cultivate a practice that offers a balanced life and opportunities to creatively collaborate with like-minded colleagues. Equal parts persistence and serendipity, my experiences have revealed that telehealth is more than the digital replication of conventional models and processes. Telehealth is a novel discipline requiring the mastery of a unique skillset that begins with the question “How can we do better?”

I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. “The Great Dissenter”