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The article addresses a critical challenge in the use of telemedicine and remote assessment of patients. While the recent growth of telemedicine has focused on optimizing the promises and opportunities inherent in video platforms, a large portion of care is still given by telephone or audio-only. There has not been a corresponding focus on how best to leverage audio-only care, or even how it is different from the standard process of obtaining a history in in-person care. The article focuses on the priorities for audio-only patient management. It further provides some suggested best practices and a conceptual framework for audio-only patient management. The article concludes with a systems-based summary of the audio-only patient assessment, including suggestions for leveraging the audio-only encounter more effectively. Effective use of audio-only encounters requires an appreciation of both the limitations inherent in these encounters and recognition of the opportunities to optimize the patient assessment.
