A Brief Note On The American Telemedicine Association

Telehealth is remote exchange of data between a patient and doctor that facilitate in better diagnosis of patients and monitoring typically used to support patients with long term conditions.

It excludes the option of face-to-face communication during examinations. Finally, telehealth focuses on educational and research purposes involving all types of caregivers with telecommunication between patient and health professionals. Health care delivery in its use of information, records, communication, and will continue to grow with the Internet. The rapid expansion of information technology into daily life and business has healthcare delivery begin to adopt and optimize the use of technology.

While sometimes used interchangeably in literature, telemedicine is the remote delivery of clinical data using the internet, telephone, wireless, and satellite media (“The Rise of Telehealth,” 2015). Telehealth services are provided through various devices such as cell phones, the internet, video, and computer software. The goal of telehealth is to “provide the right care at the right place at the right time” (“Home Telehealth: A Tool for Diabetic Self-Management,” 2016). Telehealth applications perform a wide array of functions. For instance, certain programs collect objective and subjective findings which help the healthcare team identify a diagnosis. Some telehealth technologies have been designed to allow images to be uploaded and assessed by healthcare professionals. Certain applications provide the patient with remote monitoring. Other services are designed to educate and prevent certain disease processes among its users (“The Rise of Telehealth,” 2015). All of the services which telehealth offer are designed to track various trends in patient data and the goal is that they be as user friendly as

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology has impacted the health care delivery system. Health care technology is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate in the United States, and globally. Patients and providers are witnessing these changes through the use of telehealth, and telemedicine applications. Telehealth, and telemedicine are often used interchangeably, however there is a difference between the two applications. Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver health care, health information, or health education at a distance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).

The benefits of telehealth consultations are immeasurable; clients are able to access a knowledgeable health care professional and receive a telephone triage/assessment and recommendations. This allows the patient to have immediate access to good health advice and quicker solutions. Telemedicine is one of the many vehicles of telehealth; for example, the cardiologist orders an outpatient Holter Monitor trial to evaluate arrhythmias. The technician calls the patient at the sign of any abnormal rhythm and investigate the activity performed when the reading fluctuation then the reported is communicated to the cardiologist. If warranted, the cardiology staff will contact the patient with instructions schedule an immediate appointment. Telehealth services resources would benefit the client in this next example, an individual’s come in for a sick visit expecting a prescription to be written for their illness; they receive informative instructions because of the nature of the

What is telemedicine? According to the American Telemedicine Association, “Formally defined, telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.” They

In this context telemedicine and technological capability can respond to two major strands: the first is a simplification to ensure that with available technologies, all actors of a clinical path from taking care to resign, share real-time Useful information for themselves and for other professionals in order to identify and follow the best path. The second strand is the provision on the territory of technological capacities that are very developed in a hospital environment but whose deployment is quite circumscribed.

Telehealth is one of the major types of Health Care Information Systems (HCIS) that enables providers to connect with patients and consulting practitioners across remote areas to support patient and clinician education, diagnosis and treatment, chronic disease management and monitoring, and provider-to-provider interactions (Grube, Kaufman, Clarin, & O’Riordan, 2016, p.43). Telehealth is not a new idea. It initially started in 1950’s and 1960’s when the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute started the closed-circuit TV to monitor patients in rural areas where health care is not easily accessible (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). The development of internet and broadband and

Telehealth is the monitoring via remote exchange of physiological data between a patient at home and health care professionals at hospitals or clinics to assist with diagnosis and treatment. As our society ages and health care costs increase, government and private insurance payers are seeking technological interventions. Technological solutions may provide high quality healthcare services at a distance, utilize professional resources more effectively, and enable elderly and ill patients to remain in their own homes. Patients may experience decreased hospitalization and urgent care settings, and out of home care may not be required as the patient is monitored at home. However, no study has been able to prove telehealth

The delivery of health care has always been influenced by technological developments and innovations. This is particularly true in modern health care professionals where they are obsessed with technology and rush to apply them. One of the most recent applications of ICT – Information and computer technology- is telehealth. Telehealth is the use of communication, diagnostic and information technology to provide health care when patients and providers are geographically separated [2], Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store -and-forward imaging, streaming media, terrestrial and wireless communications. Telehealth could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as

Telemedicine is similar to Telehealth. Telehealth refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare service but Telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services. Telehealth can also refer to remote non-clinical services. For example provider training and meetings (link 3). In the past the network is not as fast as now, thus telemedicine is only use in clinical services. Now, due to the development of network, more information can be transferred in a shorter period, thus Telemedicine can be to provide other non-clinical services. The word “Telehealth” refers to both clinical and non-clinical services.

Telemedicine allows a patient to have an office visit with a specialist located in another institution. This innovative technology allows institutions share their knowledge with health care providers who live in rural areas. Patient also have the opportunity to travel less and pay less for health care services.

Hence, the findings through the American Medical Association (AMA) telemedicine technology has the possibility to renovate health care delivery and address numerous care coordination challenges facing the U.S. health care system, which can enable remote, mobile and site-to-site medical care. Moreover, telemedicine primarily the key innovation in support of health care delivery enhancement used in initiatives to increase access to care, care coordination and quality and properly used has the potential to decrease the rate of growth in health care spending. However, there are three broad categories of telemedicine technologies such as store-and-forward, remote monitoring, and real-time, interactive services.

There are several forms of technology that is used to monitor, assist patients with self-care management, assist physicians with delivering care to their patients, including consultation with specialist, and overcoming barriers with transportation. “60% of the healthcare executives, physicians, and nurses in this inaugural survey said that telemedicine was a high priority for 2015“ (Vockley, 2015, para. 7) Telemedicine

Telemedicine is the use telecommunications and information technology to provide healthcare to patients located in the remote or distant locations. For example: people staying in the mountainous areas or islands can get medical services right at their home with the help of smart devices or patients who cannot go to the hospital for some reason.