Imagine calling up your health care provider via video chat instead of driving miles to a clinic and taking precious time out of your day. The concept of telehealth, or the delivery of health care services through electronic information and telecommunication, is no longer a thing of science fiction. It’s very real and more common than you think.

At the UK College of Health Sciences, communication sciences and disorders (CSD) students are learning how they can incorporate this type of cutting-edge service into their future profession.

Joneen Lowman, PhD, CCC-SLP, associate professor in the CSD program, was drawn to telehealth after teaching a distance learning master’s program. “After I started doing tele- supervision in the program it naturally progressed into the delivery of services:” she said. “I started researching it myself and getting my own personal training in the field so I could teach students about it.”

In 2015, Lowman received a Department of Education personnel preparation grant to prepare eight master-level speech language pathologists annually (40 total) in the effective utilization of telepractice for use with children in rural Kentucky.

“Most students don’t know what telehealth is or have a very limited knowledge of it. Some may not even know what the word means:” Lowman said. “@e hope to drive more awareness of the benefits of telehealth through our program.”

Students who are accepted into the Linking Kids to Speech-Language Pathologists (LinKS) program complete two courses in telehealth and three tele-experiences in addition to the accredited CSD curriculum. During their second year of study, students complete the remaining CSD requirements and the telehealth coursework.

In the summer of year two, students enroll in an introductory course in telehealth. The course addresses general principles of these digital service delivery model (what is telehealth, what are the laws and regulations, what is the basic technology, etc.) As part of the course, students participate in a mock peer-to-peer simulation of interacting with a patient in a telehealth setting.

In fall of year two, students complete a course specific to pediatric assessment and treatment practices via telehealth and work in pairs to deliver speech-language services to a child. In the third semester of the LINKS program, they participate in a seminar course focused on developing a telehealth program within a school setting. LinKS students independently delivery telehealth services to students in a school setting as their final tele-experience.

According to Lowman, this type of scaffolded teaching approach translates to great real-world success. “We had one student from our first cohort hired by a private practice in Kentucky. She has piloted a telehealth program with speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists:” she said.

A typical telehealth session will look different for every provider, but the easiest way to envision it is to think about FaceTiming with your practitioner. This type of face-to-face interaction (where the patient and provider can see and hear one another) is called synchronized communication. Depending on the software used, telehealth services can become quite sophisticated.

“In our program we use Zoom teleconferencing:” Lowman said. “Using this: I could screen-share a document with a child who is learning sentence structure and ask them to type a grammatically correct sentence. Or, I might put a document on the screen that asks a patient learning categories to circle all the animals on the sheet. So, we can do things where the child can click on a picture and it disappears or reveals something underneath it. There’s so much you can do with this technology.”

In addition to LINKS, the College of Health Sciences is hoping to develop a telehealth certificate. “This certificate would be graduate level and interdisciplinary:” Lowman explained. “It will pull in students from a variety of health care disciplines such as physical therapy and physician assistants.”

Lowman also encouraged students and practitioners to think outside of the box when it comes to telehealth.

“I believe it’s a real misnomer to assume telehealth is only for people living in rural areas who have limited access to care:” she said. “@e’re seeing a huge need for telehealth in urban and suburban areas: and in inner cities who can’t get therapists to come there. Families today operate under huge demands on their time. An online therapy session from home is a much easier alternative to schedule around in the busyness of our everyday routine.”