The COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted everyone in the world and has enabled many to find alternate means of doing their respective jobs, including those in medical related fields. Medical Genetics, an American Board of Medicine Specialty has faced challenges in the delivery of services to patients of all ages in need of services. In urban areas, the prevailing practice model has been in person patient encounters during which a medical and family history is obtained followed by a detailed physical examination. Genetic testing is often offered to help make a specific genetic diagnosis.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions in urban areas were mandated to comply with social distancing to help limit the spread of COVID-19. To help meet the demand for primary and subspecialty care many states made use of Telehealth technology. Prior to COVID-19, Telehealth has been used in rural areas to help increase accessibility to services. To best adapt to the increased demand for Telehealth, new workflows for seeing patients, documenting and billing needed to be developed in relatively short time windows requiring the harmonic convergence of physicians, hospital administrators, computer technology experts, billing staff, and legal experts. During the presentation I will discuss my clinical practice of medical genetics pre and post COVID-19 and adaptations which needed to take place for patients with genetic needs to be seen.