Session Provides Tips for Building ‘Virtual’ Presence

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought rapid and sweeping change to mental health practice. In a matter of weeks, video-based communication grew from a modestly used technology to the standard for both patient care and business practices. Though many practices are seeing patients in person again, telemedicine is poised to remain an important part of psychiatry.

How can psychiatrists with an interest in telepsychiatry best position themselves for the future?

Much has been written of the importance of HIPAA-compliant audiovisual platforms for telepsychiatry as well as obtaining appropriate licenses for the states where patients are physically located. A session at APA’s Annual Meeting explored how to build an online presence and attract new patients once the administrative and legal hurdles have been cleared.

One option for expanding one’s role in telepsychiatry is to consider joining an existing telepsychiatry company, said Steven Chan, M.D., M.B.A., a clinical informaticist and addiction physician at Palo Alto VA Health One. Commercial telepsychiatry is a vibrant and growing field, he noted, with groups such as Orbit Health, AmWell, Wheel, Bicycle Health, and others to choose from.

For those who want to practice telepsychiatry independently, Chan told the audience that the best way to reach patients interested in using telemedicine is to put technology to work. Psychiatrists should start by building their own website, and preferably they should secure a web domain in their name. There are online web building sites that can guide psychiatrists through the process, and today’s smartphones can take professional grade photos.

Another option is posting with professional organizations and consumer-focused mental health sites, several of which have sections where therapists can provide contact information for people looking for therapy. Psychiatrists with university affiliations who want to expand their patient care duties to include telepsychiatry can make use of their institution website.

Once psychiatrists have an online hub, Chan advised that they set up professional social media accounts. Preferably these professional accounts should use the same name across platforms to avoid confusion, he said. Chan added that there are apps called social media managers that coordinate posting messages across multiple platforms and scheduling posts at set times, so psychiatrists don’t have to spend hours on end on these platforms. Chan also noted that in his experience, it takes only a few introductory posts to get people to notice, which is not surprising given the well-known gap between the supply and demand of mental health professionals.

Chan added that psychiatrists should not forget about sites like Google Maps and Yelp that let people post business information.

Fellow panelist Ed Kaftarian, M.D., the chair and CEO of Orbit Health, noted that many psychiatrists like to include some personal information on their web pages or social media profiles as a way to humanize themselves to prospective patients. He cautioned that psychiatrists should be aware that some seemingly innocuous information (like a favorite restaurant) might reveal some personal details (like where they live), so they should always be aware of what they are putting online.

Once the interested patients start reaching out, technology can also help psychiatrists optimize their operations, said Jay Shore, M.D., M.P.H., the director of telemedicine at the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Depression Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “This new hybrid model of work has increased flexibility but blurred the boundaries between work and home even more,” he said. And being constantly “connected” is a risk factor for burnout and depression.

“If we want to stay sane while providing virtual care, then we have to reclaim some of these boundaries,” Shore said. He suggested psychiatrists clearly list rules on when and how their patients can contact them. Examples include setting up a dedicated voicemail line to manage all prescription refill needs, limiting communications to email or text messages to avoid “phone tag,” and incorporating automated chatbots to one’s website to answer common patient questions. Physicians should also make use of template documents and dictation systems to speed workflow. ■