Telemedicine in the preoperative setting: turning potential into practice

The integration of telemedicine (TM) into the preoperative evaluation pathway is an idea whose time has come. Its potential to improve accessibility, efficiency, and clinical outcomes is supported by a growing body of evidence [1–3]. However, in many healthcare systems,mplementation remains inconsistent or absent. The slow and fragmented adoption of telemedicine in the perioperative period is not a result of limited technology but rather of complex barriers—organizational, clinical, regulatory, and infrastructural—that have yet to be adequately addressed. Table 1 lists, for each area, the issues that need to be addressed to introduce telemedicine in a solid and structured way into the perioperative pathway.