Although use of telehealth may have begun centuries ago and has grown considerably through the 20th century, the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic skyrocketed telemedicine's reach, including its use in pediatrics. The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses telehealth as a "critical infrastructure to efficiently implement the medical home model of care." Particularly for children with medical complexity (CMC), telehealth offers great promise to improve access to continuous, coordinated primary care, reduce time to pediatric subspecialty care, and support distance education for both pediatric providers and patients and their families. This article details the numerous benefits of telehealth to CMC with an emphasis on its use as an extender of the medical home, describes the venues in which telehealth augments access to safe, high-quality care, presents best practices in engaging in telehealth encounters, and enumerates barriers that may exacerbate current health inequities. We review current published telehealth patient-/caregiver-level, clinician-level, and payor-level outcomes while revealing research gaps and opportunities. [Pediatr Ann. 2024;53(3):e74-e81.].
Pediatricians are faced with a multitude of difficult tasks each day for a variety of age groups. Providing medical care and support to children with medical complexity and their families adds additional challenges, including management of polypharmacy, therapies, complications, and difficult conversations. The relationship a family has with their pediatrician is extremely special and valuable. As such, pediatricians may find themselves guiding parents through decision-making without the proper training or tools. They may struggle with navigating the conversations to assist families in reaching a helpful conclusion. This article reviews three difficult situations that families of children with medical complexity may face and three different readily available and valuable frameworks to assist with navigating those difficult conversations. [Pediatr Ann. 2024;53(3):e99-e103.].