Telephone Medicine

The telephone is now a significant component of medical care: 25% of encounters between primary care physicians and patients involve its use. Successful telephone medicine improves the rapport between doctor and patient, increases access to care, enhances patient satisfaction, and lowers patient and physician costs. Telephone medicine is no longer just renewing prescriptions. A telephone call can clarify issues raised during the office visit, help patients with decisions about their health care at home, prevent unnecessary emergency department visits, and communicate test results quickly and personally.

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.

Telemedicineâ€"the use of information and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participantsâ€"is receiving increasing attention not only in remote areas where health care access is troublesome but also in urban and suburban locations. Yet the benefits and costs of this blend of medicine and digital technologies must be better demonstrated before today's cautious decision-makers invest significant funds in its development. Telemedicine presents a framework for evaluating patient care applications of telemedicine. The book identifies managerial, technical, policy, legal, and human factors that must be taken into account in evaluating a telemedicine program. The committee reviews previous efforts to establish evaluation frameworks and reports on results from several completed studies of image transmission, consulting from remote locations, and other telemedicine programs. The committee also examines basic elements of an evaluation and considers relevant issues of quality, accessibility, and cost of health care. Telemedicine will be of immediate interest to anyone with interest in the clinical application of telemedicine.

This 2006 volume provides a comprehensive discussion of communication between doctors and patients in primary care consultations. It brings together a team of leading contributors from the fields of linguistics, sociology and medicine to describe each phase of the primary care consultation, identifying the distinctive tasks, goals and activities that make up each phase of primary care as social interaction. Using conversation analysis techniques, the authors analyze the sequential unfolding of a visit, and describe the dilemmas and conflicts faced by physicians and patients as they work through each of these activities. The result is a view of the medical encounter that takes the perspective of both physicians and patients in a way that is both rigorous and humane. Clear and comprehensive, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, and medicine.

With comprehensive coverage of emergency and pre-hospital care topics, this book provides you with everything that you need when you are first at the scene.

This great resource provides the expert help triagers need to handle a wide array of phone inquiries. The new 4th edition is completely revised and updated to include more than 100 protocols that provide step-by-step guidance for addressing 90% of the most common adult complaints.

Fully up-to-date and packed with useful tips and helpful insights,this publication provides a comprehensive overview of the admission process forthe national and international veterinary schools that are members of theAssociation of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). As the official guideto getting into vet school, it provides hundreds of pages of must-haveinformation, essential to achieving your goal of becoming a veterinarian. The heart of this publication is a directory of member schools,providing the following information for each school: a summary of applicationprocedures; requirements for application and residency; prerequisites foradmission; deadlines for each component of the application process; a descriptionof campus and campus life; and the costs of tuition and fees. Full-page spreadsprovide a complete profile of the different campuses and clearly lay out allthe details you need to select the school that matches your needs best. Additional information includes an overview of the VeterinaryMedical College Application Service (VMCAS); information about theaccreditation of veterinary schools and professional licensure as aveterinarian; a helpful timeline for aspiring vets from high school onward; andfirsthand accounts from current students and practitioners about what it's liketo train as a vet. This publication provides concise, current, and the best comparativeinformation for students interested in preparing for a career in veterinarymedicine, as well as their advisors and counselors. It is the essential guideto becoming a DVM.