My move into emergency telemedicine, after decades of public hospital practice, has been a revelation.

I like to call this type of practice ‘community emergency medicine’.

It separates the specialist knowledge and skills from the facility, and fills a service gap in a unique way.

I have been forced to rethink many of my previous assumptions about good clinical care.

Much of the discussion about telemedicine on a recent Medical Observer opinion piece has revealed some widespread misunderstandings.

Using my six years of emergency telemedicine experience (starting before COVID), I want to dispel some of those.