Telemedicine has become especially popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. The successful functioning of this system was established thanks to competent leadership. An innovative approach to healthcare has allowed many patients to monitor their health from the comfort of their homes. With innovation and exemplary leadership, telemedicine has become a solution for many patients, which is why, when analyzing the characteristics of these people, it is necessary to pay attention to these critical points.
Four types of leadership can be considered applicable to the field of telemedicine: transformational leadership, leadership in change management, relationship-oriented leadership, and process improvement leadership. Transformational leadership was implied to create a good relationship and trust between a doctor and a patient, which is extremely important in telemedicine. Relationship-oriented leadership in telemedicine can be described as motivation of the patients to fight their disease event during the tough time of the pandemic. The ability to guarantee a sense of stability in a constantly changing environment can be called leadership in change management. Process improvement leadership required seeking different solutions to patients’ problems, even in hopeless situations.
The innovation of telemedicine is manifested in the sensations of entirely new methods in healthcare. Online patient screening and engagement is the basic principle of telemedicine and probably the most innovative. The resource needed to organize the time of medical staff – online scheduling – will remain in the system after the pandemic. Another important innovation of telemedicine is the ‘command center,’ enabling specialists to guide less experienced colleagues distantly in remote locations. Similarly, technical experts who know all the ins and outs of a particular treatment device or interventional system can be called for remote support. The emergence of new devices that allow remote monitoring of the patient’s condition: special sensors that transmit indicators to a medical institution can be called an innovation. The innovation of telemedicine, in general, lies in the introduction of remote medical care technologies, which will significantly reduce the burden on polyclinics and hospitals and reduce the spread of infections.
The importance of studying leadership types used in telemedicine and its innovativeness is to complete the portrait of a patient seeking remote assistance. This study will help identify the pros and cons of the new approach, which has become especially important during the global pandemic. The study is intended to search new solutions for the entire medical system, which must be fixed in it even after the end of the pandemic.