The Center for Connected Care has a one- or two-year Telehealth Leadership Fellowship. As healthcare strives to connect an expanding pool of patients to their health care providers, Telehealth is poised for massive growth. Thomas Jefferson University is leading the nation’s adoption of telehealth with expansion in four key domains: outpatient care; transitions in care; inpatient care; and academics, with its JeffConnect Program, National Center for Telehealth Education & Research (NCTER); and Center for Connected Care. In this unique setting, Fellows will become leaders in telehealth practice, education and research.

Fellows will be immersed in a diverse educational environment while learning the business and medicine of telehealth. Working with management teams across Jefferson and private sector partners, they will develop and lead telehealth use cases while building their leadership and administrative skills. Utilizing team based learning, hands on application of knowledge, and simulation training, the curriculum is informed by the principles of experiential and self-directed learning theories to foster knowledge in four core areas of study. These core areas, and their associated competencies, continuously complement one another and work to build a foundation of telehealth & leadership success.

In order to prepare fellows for the challenge of implementing telehealth solutions they will participate in rigorous leadership training and informative 360 evaluations. The curriculum includes LEAN Thinking, Crucial Conversations, and Emotional Intelligence theories of leadership and management. Fellows will immediately implement these lessons while developing and implementing new use cases with increasing levels of administrative responsibilities. To enable rapid and continuous improvement and self-evaluation Fellows will participate in a Transformative Leadership Development Program, have regular mentoring with experienced leaders, as well as professional coaching.

To build on the Fellow's ability to develop optimistic teams, effectively execute decisions, and demonstrate basic business fundamentals, the program offers rations embeds fellows through in various Jefferson administrative departments as well as public and private sectors. These experiences allow the Fellow to explore the complexities of telehealth marketing, finance, health informatics, and legal and ethical concerns. The Fellow will use these experiences to develop their own Capstone Telehealth use-case.

Before taking on clinical and administrative responsibilities the Fellow will participate in a Telehealth Boot Camp utilizing simulation-based instruction, team based training and didactic teaching to prepare them as telehealth providers. It is an expectation that fellows contribute in a meaningful way to the current research supporting the evidence base of telehealth. To develop the needed research knowledge and skills, fellows will immediately be incorporated into research projects, and have the opportunity throughout the program develop/complete a telehealth research project under the supervision of a team of preceptors, and complete a rigorous course of didactics and seminars. 

Fellows will be given the flexibility to pursue a certificate or masters degree from the Jefferson College of Health Professions, Jefferson College of Population Health, or Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce - School of Business.

Fellows will work approximately 16-20 hours a week as a telehealth provider. In this role, they are required to have quarterly assessments and informative feedback of their efficiency, compliance with clinical protocol, team skills, and communication skills. Through collaboration with various departments of Jefferson, the fellow will have the unique opportunity to learn best practices and lessons learned from the program directors of operationalized telehealth programs, experiencing the diversity of telehealth.