Global Telehealth

The need to promote academic activities in telehealth remains a high priority as the discipline expands into new areas of healthcare. Response during 2020 to the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an excellent example of the rapid diversification and impact attainable with telehealth, and may kindle a new momentum for accelerated service design and adoption processes in the future. This book, Telehealth Innovations in Remote Healthcare Services Delivery, is the tenth in the Global Telehealth series. Due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions placed on academic gatherings, the organizers issued a general call for contributions, with the intention of attracting a wide cross-section of contributions reflecting the breadth of different aspects of telehealth internationally. The resulting collection offers snapshots of research projects and studies of service experience from five continents, with an emphasis on delivering benefits in regional settings in keeping with the theme of the book’s title. Articles range from descriptions of telehealth networks and clinical-service instances such as cardiac health, mental health and pathology, several in Pacific-rim settings, to more generic papers on the evolution of such services, as well as commentaries on innovative considerations for telehealth such as the emergence of the concept of virtual care, the suitability of health apps, and the status of eHealth readiness in the developing world. This book is a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge on current telehealth research interests and trends, and will be of interest to all those working in the field.

Telehealth - the delivery of health services and clinical information from a distance - has reached new levels with the communication revolution of the last decade: consumer videoconferencing, mobile devices, high bandwidth infrastructure and close range wireless sensor networks have made many advances possible in the field. New specialized clinical applications and markets have also emerged. These include tele-homecare, tele-rehabilitation and tele-emergency, surveillance and disaster response, while ideas which once seemed futuristic, such as tele-procedures and tele-surgery, are now seen as.

In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.

The adoption of telehealth is growing, accompanied by a diversification of service delivery and a broadening of access. All of this is pushing the boundaries of traditional healthcare worldwide. Latest developments include the growth of Mobile Health (mHealth), with access to information and services by means of personal devices such as tablet computers and smart phones, virtual healthcare services, which use online interactive environments to engage with the subject of care and remotely enable or mimic the desired patient-clinician relationship, and the personal and home health monitoring market. This book presents the proceedings of Global Telehealth 2015 (GT2015), hosted by COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association, and held in May 2015, in Toronto, Canada. The theme of this year’s conference is 'Serving the Underserved: Integrating Technology & Information for Better Healthcare'. The leadership and knowledge reflected in the 25 papers collected here will promote the equity of access and uniform provision of healthcare services and influence health policy and strategic decisions worldwide, and the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves the various forms of telehealth in use today.

Telehealth -- the delivery of health services and clinical information from a distance -- has reached new levels with the communication revolution of the last decade: consumer videoconferencing, mobile devices, high bandwidth infrastructure and close range wireless sensor networks have made many advances possible in the field. New specialized clinical applications and markets have also emerged. These include tele-homecare, tele-rehabilitation and tele-emergency, surveillance and disaster response, while ideas which once seemed futuristic, such as tele-procedures and tele-surgery, are now seen as being within the realms of possibility. This book contains selected papers from the 2010 Global Telehealth conference, hosted by the Australasian Telehealth Society. They cover a broad spectrum, from successfully completed projects to work in progress. The papers chosen for publication are all deemed to have lasting value, and to capture the international diversity and scope of contemporary telehealth developments. Two aspects which remain elusive in advancing telehealth deployment, both in developed countries and the developing world, are widely accepted evidence for the clinical and economic benefits of telehealth and the development of policy and business modeling drivers which will speed their adoption. The studies presented here exemplify precisely the type of work required to overcome these obstacles and the book will be of interest to all those involved in advancing the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare throughout the world.

Although telehealth (one component of ehealth) continues to be implemented around the world, sound evidence of its value to healthcare systems remains limited and the tipping point at which its universal adoption will be assured has yet to be reached. On the other hand, the spontaneous growth of mobile healthcare solutions and applications offered by smart phones have become more common amongst healthcare providers, and the creation of Web-based wellness promotion and health management tools has opened up a whole new area in which telehealth can provide future benefits. This book presents selected full papers from Global Telehealth 2014 (GT2014), held in Durban, South Africa, in November 2014. This was the third international conference in the series, and this year’s theme was "Integrated, Innovative, Scalable and Sustainable Solutions"; emphasizing the importance of these aspects in achieving wider acceptance and adoption of ehealth and telehealth. The book will be of interest to all those involved in the global telehealth community.

Health systems worldwide are under increasing pressure to deliver services in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Telehealth, or the delivery of health services at a distance, has an important role to play in achieving this. Communication technologies are becoming more readily accessible and affordable, and an array of telehealth applications are emerging which have potential benefits for patients and clinicians, particularly in areas where health services are traditionally limited, non-existent or difficult to access.This book presents papers selected from contributions to the 2nd International Conference on Global

Innovations in providing vital health care in homes and remote areas could ultimately change the way society views the health care markets and services in the future. Telehealth systems promise innovations that can extend a hospital’s knowledge and resources, connecting with patients who may not be able to otherwise receive services. Telehealth Network for Hospital Services: New Methodologies carefully focuses on and describes different networks that link hospitals and their services to patients outside their territory. This reference work not only focuses on the technology that is integral to the function of a telehealth network, but also its users, and the collaboration that is necessary to be successful. Researchers, practitioners, and health professionals interested in understanding health markets and organizations, as well as the innovative technologies that help them function, will greatly benefit from this publication.