Under the umbrella of e-Mental Health (eMH), Telepsychiatry (TP) keeps its place as the oldest and best-documented application. Legislative issues, and the concerns related to the quality of care and patient safety, have kept TP from broader adoption. COVID19 pandemic seems to be a turning point for TP as well as for the eMH in general. The use of TP has exploded as many regulatory barriers to its use have been temporarily lowered during the COVID-19 pandemic. What has to be done to sustain this momentum?

-outline temporary changes in TP regulations made due to COVID19; -discuss which of these should be maintained, modified, or reversed; -suggest additional initiatives needed to facilitate patient and professional use of digital technology.

Examination of the use of digital technology in the light of regulatory, legislative, and other changes and initiatives made due to COVID 19.

Among several policy changes, the most important is e.g. removal of the “originating site” rule so professionals can be paid for a remote appointment wherever the patient is, including in the patient’s home. Further, professionals were allowed to serve patients through everyday communication technologies such as FaceTime, WhatsApp, Viber, or Skype, all compromising patient/data safety.

EPA is perfectly positioned to be the frontrunner for the required initiatives i.e. mandatory lectures related to eMH at medical educational institutions, launching of TP-competency training of mental health professionals, regulatory and statutory changes e.g. unified licensure regulations, etc that are crucial for modernizing mental health care delivery and preparation for future unprecedented events.

No significant relationships.

Predicting paramedic candidate performance on the written Iicensure examination is of considerable importance to educators, students, employers, and state regulators. There has been little investigation of the available statistical data regarding examinee pass rate and examination score. No studies have measured an examinee's sequential success pattern on the basic emergency medical technician (EMT) or paramedic examinations. There has been no analysis of the relationship between the number of examinations required for successful paramedic Iicensure and examination score.

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency with which paramedic Iicensure examinees successfully pass the State of Michigan written examination on the first or subsequent attempts; to determine the frequency with which the paramedic examinees pass the prerequisite basic EMT Iicensure examination; to determine whether the frequency of paramedic examination attempts is related to examination score; and to determine whether there is a relationship between successfully passing the basic EMT examination and successfully passing the paramedic examination.

A retrospective study of Michigan paramedic Iicensure examination results for 1994 was done on the basis of a review of reports prepared for Michigan Department of Public Health Emergency Medical Services (MDPH-EMS) by Professional Examination Services. Analysis of paramedic examination score and the number of examination attempts is correlated to EMT score and number of attempts required to pass. Success in the first or subsequent paramedic examinations is correlated to paramedic score, and success in passing the first or subsequent EMT examination is then related to success in passing the paramedic examination.

Paramedic examinees (n = 869) generated a 72.1% pass rate in 1994 (mean score = 82.2%). The minimum passing score is 80%. The average score for examinees who passed (n = 627) was 86.2 % (95% confidence interval [CI] = 85.8–86.6%); those who failed (n = 242) averaged 71.9% (95% CI = 71.1–72.6%). Paramedic examinees successful on the first attempt (n = 500) had higher average scores (mean = 87.1%; 95% CI = 86.7–87.5%) than did those who required multiple attempts (mean = 82.8%; 95% CI = 82.3–83.3%; n = 127).

A total of 702 (90.5%) paramedic examinees passed the EMT examination on the first attempt. Examinees who passed the EMT examination the first time averaged fewer attempts on the paramedic examination (mean 1.5; 95% CI = 1.4–1.6) than did those who required multiple EMT examinations (mean 2.3; 95% CI = 2.0–2.6). Paramedic examinees passing the EMT examination in one attempt had higher average paramedic scores (82.6%; 95% CI = 82.1–83.2%) than those needing multiple EMT attempts (75.5%; 95% CI = 73.4–77.5%).

Paramedic examinees who pass their EMT Iicensure examination on the first attempt have a significantly better chance of passing the paramedic Iicensure examination. Paramedic Iicensure examinees who pass the paramedic examination on the first attempt score significantly higher than do examinees who require additional attempts. Paramedic programs should incorporate EMT examination performance into their student selection criteria. Further study of variables predictive of success is needed.