An Analysis of Training of the Remote Medical Provider and Recommended Standards

This article summarizes the mindset, educational requirements, different training aspects, and specific treatment protocols that help establish the Remote Medical Provider (RMP) concept's baseline proficiency criteria and recommended institutional standards and provide a foundation resource for policymakers and academic leaders. The remote medical provider is any level of a practitioner who provides health care or service in a remote setting, defined as isolation from ‘routine’ healthcare service due to limited resources, physical distance, mission parameters, travel time, or sociopolitical constraints. A remote setting is described within these five disciplines: austere, disaster/humanitarian, expedition, military, and wilderness medicine. The remote medical provider requires a multidisciplinary knowledge base with an advanced skill set to deliver innovative treatment methods with limited diagnostic support or advanced services. The remote medical provider should also be well-versed in both independent duty care and collaborative telehealth - telemedicine. The remote medical provider requires competence in progressively higher levels of care with a seasoned level of understanding, responsibility, and resourcefulness. The remote medical provider needs to have an adaptive mindset, a robust public-global health perspective with cross-cultural understanding, and enduring resilience to the harshness of the environment.