Considerations for the Optimum Use of Telemedicine in Surgical Care and Education

In this program, our dynamic panel addresses various considerations regarding the use of telemedicine now and in the future, with emphasis on both patient care and education. Following brief presentations by each speaker, panelists engage in a question-and-answer session. This program is ideal for hospital administrators, faculty, program directors, clerkship directors, and learners.

Please note that the online course is designated for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

Andrew R. Watson, MD, MLitt, FACS, is a fourth-generation surgeon and the eighth surgeon in his family. He earned his master’s degree at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, studying 17th Century Baroque Architecture. He attended medical school at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and completed his surgical internship, residency, and minimally invasive fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Watson practices colorectal surgery at UPMC, specializing in minimally invasive and complex/salvage re-operative inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) surgery. He is a cofounder of IBD Live, a national weekly video grand rounds that focuses on value-based and complex IBD cases. He is on the multisite stakeholder-advisory board of the UPMC Insurance Services PCORI grant focusing on IBD complex care.

He actively uses and helps to develop telemedicine at UPMC with a focus on remote patient monitoring. Dr. Watson has done more than 530 virtual consults, including preoperative, postoperative, telerounding, intraoperative, and remote patient monitoring. He was president of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) in 2019, after having served on all ATA committees. He was elected as an ATA Fellow in 2020. He cofounded and coleads the national TweetChat #TelemedNow, which gives practical advice and guidance on virtual care in the US. He an inaugural member of the American Board of Telehealth.

Jyotirmay (Joe) Sharma, MD, FACS, is an associate professor and William C. McGarity Chair of Surgery in the Division of General and GI Surgery at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Sharma also serves as vice-chair for quality, patient safety, and Innovation, as well as director of thyroid and endocrine surgery at Emory University Hospital.

Dr. Sharma is heavily involved in the Department of Surgery's quality and safety efforts, particularly as chair of the Wound Infection Group, which formed with a mandate to reduce surgical site infections (SSIs) at Emory hospitals. SSIs are one of the more common healthcare-associated infections. The multidisciplinary group's agenda involves all aspects of patient care, from preoperative visits and perioperative counseling to intraoperative issues and postop care. He is a member of multiple Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expert panels and National Quality Forum Common Formats panel.

He is also a frequent participant in Emory Haiti Alliance summer surgical trips to hospitals in the poorest and most medically underserved region in Haiti. He routinely performs outpatient parathyroidectomies, outpatient thyroidectomies, and adrenalectomies using minimally invasive techniques and has published various journal articles on these techniques. Dr. Sharma will Chair of the ACS Board of Governors Telemedicine Workgroup.

Catherine A. Matthews, MD, FACS, is a professor of urology and gynecology at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina and serves as the fellowship director of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, as well as codirector of the Female Pelvic Health Center. She is the senior author of a paper outlining a toolkit for implementation of telemedicine that was published in the August 2021 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Matthews is passionate about education and has delivered more than 100 invited international and national lectures and workshops and has received numerous teaching awards. She has received multiple awards for her excellence in patient care and has been an annual recipient of "Top Doctors in America" for the past 15 years. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in pelvic organ prolapse surgery, robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexy and fecal incontinence.