PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Edgoose, Jennifer Y. C.
TI  - Exploring the Face-to-Face: Revisiting Patient-Doctor Relationships in a Time of Expanding Telemedicine
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2021.S1.200398
DP  - 2021 Feb 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - S252--S254
VI  - 34
IP  - Supplement
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/34/Supplement/S252.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/34/Supplement/S252.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2021 Feb 01; 34
AB  - The patient-doctor relationship lies at the heart of medicine. Confronted with the challenges of COVID-19, we find ourselves unable to provide care and comfort in the same physical space as our patients. As we are forced to reckon with telemedicine visits and contemplate continuing them in a postpandemic future, it is important to understand the difference relationally between telemedicine and face-to-face encounters. I will argue that face-to-face visits remain essential in establishing the most fundamentally human components of relationships: responsibility and vulnerability. This established bond assures fidelity in subsequent encounters, whether by phone, video, or in person.