We appreciate the letter from Díez-Villanueva et al. regarding the consensus document of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) on telematic consultation. The authors stress the special characteristics of the geriatric population, whose peculiarities are well-known to clinical cardiologists, given that many of the patients we treat in the clinic are elderly. Accordingly, although there is no explicit reference to the elderly population in the document, the information provided is applicable to older patients.
The authors propose the use of the 5M framework. While published before the COVID-19 pandemic, this system may have even greater validity now. Although the framework has practical usefulness, its value is not exclusively limited to the elderly population. Indeed, some of the “Ms” are pillars of the telematic consultation, independently of age, as described in the consensus document. However, the first “M” is unfortunately not very intuitive in Spanish (translated from “Matters Most to Me” as “Más importante” [“More important”]) and its significance is thus less memorable.
A point highlighted by the authors is the need to help elderly people, who are typically cut off from new technologies, to understand telemedicine. Although this aspect is undeniable, we must also recognize that, in the face of the sudden proliferation in computing technology, we have witnessed an astonishing adaptive capacity of our elderly population. Many have progressed with an unexpected ease from using their mobile phone to just make phone calls to writing messages on WhatsApp and even videoconferencing. Nonetheless, we agree that their difficulties must be understood to allow us to take advantage of telemedicine opportunities and to facilitate the use of the tools available to overcome possible limitations with the new technologies, as has recently been discussed.1,2
The treatment of elderly cardiology patients is an essential component of the cardiology consultation.3 Accordingly, all contributions from experts in geriatrics are welcome to promote cooperation and collaboration between professionals and directly improve the care of older patients.