Health Care Policy and Regulatory Challenges for Adoption of Telemedicine in Kidney Transplantation

Telemedicine practice has surged dramatically across US transplant centers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in efforts to sustain access to kidney transplantation and maintain continuity of care with heightened public health consciousness.1,2 Telemedicine by synchronous video visits integrated with electronic medical records has the potential to have a lasting impact on the field of kidney transplantation beyond the pandemic. Telemedicine may help reduce kidney transplantation disparities by supporting pretransplantation evaluations of potential kidney transplant recipients and live kidney donors who have challenges to come to a transplantation center for their initial in-person evaluations due to geographic, financial, or logistical issues.