American Telemedicine Challenges

Telehealth is an innovative approach to health care that is rapidly expanding in all areas of patient care. It has been shown to be cost effective and is rapidly being integrated into everyday practices from clinics, hospitals, court systems, school systems and even the local drug store.

Through telehealth consultants patients are able to participate in clinical trials unavailable in many rural areas.This

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

According to the National Rural Health Association, there is a shortage of doctors in rural America, where only ten percent of doctors work in rural healthcare facilities, even though one fourth of the American population resides in rural areas (NRHA). The use of telemedicine can be a bridge for medical services from urban areas where there is a large number of doctors to rural areas where there aren’t a lot of doctors (McCarthy 112). Underdeveloped countries or developing countries benefit from the use of telemedicine as well, because these countries don’t have access to healthcare. Healthcare is inaccessible because of a couple of reasons being distance, lack of transportation, or the health facilities are unreachable. More often than not, the services in these facilities are lacking in providing adequate care. Most physicians in these facilities aren’t specialists and may not know the right way in going about treating a patient. With telemedicine the doctors in these facilities can utilize real-time telemedicine and have a videoconference with a specialist so they can treat the patient in the best way possible. According to the article Telemedicine in Developing Countries by Steven Edworthy he writes, “Telemedicine may in fact have a more profound impact on developing countries than on developed ones”(Edworthy

I also was quite startled by the health disparities rural populations face in regard to access to care issues and recruiting health care providers. I am originally from the state of Iowa -- I saw many parallels between rural health care in West Virginia and Iowa. In college I did my nursing clinical rotation in a rural area in Iowa and I remember how hard it was for patients to find transportation to a health care facility. It was especially difficult for patients who needed specialty health care services like oncology. This is where I really think innovative information technologies like Telehealth can make a difference in rural populations’ health outcomes. Hopefully, more rural health care centers will make the commitment to adopting

Telehealth service is becoming increasingly used especially in rural communities where it is difficult to get health care providers to go to such communities to provide health care services; often, in such communities, you have just one or two primary care providers for a large population of people. States are now more than ever recognizing the benefits of treating disease in a timely manner to prevent worsening and potential hospitalization which is hard to do in some rural Counties. According to The National conference of State legislatures, 43 states and the District of Columbia now provide some form of Medicaid reimbursement for telehealth services and 19 states and the District of Columbia now require private insurance plans in the state

Presently, telehealth is recognized as the use of remote healthcare that includes non-clinical services, provider trainings, administrative meetings, and continuing medical education in addition to clinical services through different modes of technology over distances (Krupinski, Bernard, 2014). Telehealth, creates an opportunity to increase access and the quality of care to individuals without general means of transportation and individuals in rural communities everywhere around the world. Telehealth in conjunction to advanced practice nursing, also referred to as telenursing, creates an opportunity to make an even greater impact and make the use of telehealth more feasible in many respects. In the same way telehealth can

In 2014 the average American spent $9,596 on healthcare, up significantly from $7,700 in 2007 and there are estimates that costs will continue to rise, even expecting to pass $10,000 per person in 2016.1 In the past decade, “the leading causes of death in the world have shifted from acute and infectious disease to chronic and degenerative diseases”. 2 In rural America, there are about 10 percent of practicing physicians, despite one-fifth of the US population that lives in these areas.3 One solution to these problems is telehealth. Telehealth, which includes telemedicine and telehomecare, integrates electronic information and telecommunication technology to provide health care and health education over distances, such as in rural areas or from a patient’s home if they are not able to travel.

What is telehealth? Telehealth is the information and communication technology which delivers health services over distances. This information includes Internet or web-based ‘e-health’ and video-based applications which can be delivered in real-time or store-and-forward mode. Telehealth is unique and has the capability to cross geographical, temporal, political, social and cultural barriers within the health sector. Telemedicine is often used interchangeably with telehealth, however the term telemedicine generally implies a physician mediated interaction with patients.”[2]

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.

Often the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are cost and location. Lower income individuals just do not have the resources to have optimal healthcare, or cannot take the time away from employment to deal with health issues. One potential solution to help with these problems could be “telehealth.” Telehealth allows a lower level healthcare practitioner to communicate with a physician or specialists when necessary. Remote rural areas use a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner on location in remote areas.

Due to the advancements in technology, the medical world is constantly changing. One of the changes has been seen in the telemedicine field, which allows patients to access medical information and services as well as consult with their doctors via e-mail, text, or two-way video. Telemedicine is defined as the exchange of medical information between healthcare practitioners and patients through electronic communications. The purpose of telemedicine is to improve the health of an individual.

Telemedicine is defined as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status (American Telemedicine Association, 2012). Telemedicine includes an expanding assortment of applications and services that take advantage of video, email, smart phone, wireless tools, and other telecommunication technologies. These types

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.