Understanding Telehealth

The first complete guide to the rapidly expanding field of telehealth From email to videoconferencing, telehealth puts real-time healthcare solutions at patients’ and clinicians’ fingertips. Every year, the field continues to evolve, enhancing access to healthcare, supporting clinicians, and improving the patient experience. However, since telehealth is in its infancy, no text has offered a comprehensive, definitive survey of this up-and-coming field—until now. Written by past presidents of the American Telemedicine Association, Understanding Telehealth explains how clinical applications leveraging telehealth technology are optimizing healthcare delivery. In addition, this timely resource examines the bedrock principles of telehealth and highlights the safety standards involved in the diagnosis and treatment of patients through digital communications. Logically organized and supported by high-yield clinical vignettes, the book begins with essential background information, including a look at telehealth history, definitions and roles, and rural health. It then provides an overview of clinical services for adults, from telestroke to telepsychiatry. The third section addresses pediatric clinical services, encompassing pediatric emergency and critical care, telecardiology, and more. A groundbreaking resource: •Chapters cover a broad spectrum of technologies, evidence-based guidelines, and application of telehealth across the healthcare continuum •Ideal for medical staff, public healthcare executives, hospitals, clinics, payors, healthcare advocates, and researchers alike •Incisive coverage of the legal and regulatory environment underpinning telehealth practice

Fundamentals of Telemedicine and Telehealth provides an overview on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to solve health problems, especially for people living in remote and underserviced areas. With the advent of new technologies and improvement of internet connectivity, telehealth has become a new subject requiring a new understanding of IT devices and how to utilize them to fulfill health needs. The book discusses topics such as digitizing patient information, technology requirements, existing resources, planning for telehealth projects, and primary care and specialized applications. Additionally, it discusses the use of telemedicine for patient empowerment and telecare in remote locations. Authored by IMIA Telehealth working group, this book is a valuable source for graduate students, healthcare workers, researchers and clinicians interested in using telehealth as part of their practice or research. Presents components of healthcare that can be benefitted from remote access and when to rely on them Explains the current technologies and tools and how to put them to effective use in daily healthcare Provides legal provisions for telehealth implementation, discussing the risks of remote healthcare provision and cross border care

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.

Research findings and dissemination are making healthcare more effective. Electronic health records systems and advanced tools are making care delivery more efficient. Legislative reforms are striving to make care more affordable. Efforts still need to be focused on making healthcare more accessible. Clinical Videoconferencing in Telehealth takes a comprehensive and vital step forward in providing mental health and primary care services for those who cannot make traditional office visits, live in remote areas, have transportation or mobility issues or have competing demands. Practical, evidence-based information is presented in a step by step format at two levels: for administrators, including information regarding selecting the right videoconferencing technology, navigating regulatory issues, policy temples, boilerplate language for entering into care agreements with other entities and practical solutions to multisite programming; and for clinicians, including protocols for safe, therapeutically sound practice, informed consent and tips for overcoming common technical barriers to communication in clinical videoconferencing contexts. Checklists, tables, templates, links, vignettes and other tools help to equip professional readers for providing safe services that are streamlined and relevant while avoiding guesswork, false starts and waste. The book takes a friendly-mentor approach to communication in areas such as: Logistics for administrators: Clinical videoconferencing infrastructures and technologies Policy development, procedures and tools for responsible and compliant programming Navigating issues related to providing services in multiple locations Protocols for clinicians: The informed consent process in clinical videoconferencing Clinical assessment and safety planning for remote services Minimizing communication disruption and optimizing the therapeutic alliance Clinical Videoconferencing in Telehealth aptly demonstrates the promise and potential of this technology for clinicians, clinic managers, administrators and others affiliated with mental health clinical practices. It is designed to be the comprehensive “one-stop” tool for clinical videoconferencing service development for programs and individual clinicians.

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 unique book comprehensively reviews how information technology is changing cardiovascular medical practice. Chapters include a wide range of topics from specific technologies and virtual care education to large system implementation. Extensive illustrative material and specific case studies are included throughout to reinforce key concepts and enable the reader to develop an understanding of how information technology is impacting medical practice. Health equity, medicolegal ethics, and regulatory considerations are also covered. Healthcare Information Technology for Cardiovascular Medicine: Telemedicine & Digital Health provides a foundation for better understanding how these technologies impact cardiovascular care delivery. Its comprehensive analysis enables healthcare providers and other stakeholders to enhance clinical practice through digital health implementation.

At a time when telehealth is being used more widely than ever before, this new book from Kimberly Noel and Renee Fabus meets an urgent need for evidence around optimal telehealth training to support interprofessional practice. This textbook will be invaluable to all healthcare professionals who would like to incorporate telehealth into interprofessional education and practice. It discusses the role of social determinants of health, health literacy and aspects of health informatics in practice, and illustrates telehealth in different healthcare professions. Simply written and easy to follow, it takes the reader through what they need to know about telehealth, interprofessional telehealth competencies, virtual healthcare, teaching telehealth and virtual clinical examination skills. This text is suitable for students in medical school and the range of professional healthcare programs. Written in straight-forward language and easy to follow Contributions from international experts Showcases best practices for adoption of telehealth technology that is safe, appropriate, data-driven, equitable and team-based Exercises help link theory to practice Resources and clinical cases

Telemedicine Basics -- Telemedicine Technologies -- Telehealth Training and Education -- Telehealth Adoption and Patient Engagement -- Quality Assessment in Emergency Telehealth -- Legal, Regulatory and Reimbursement Considerations -- Telehealth Cybersecurity -- Telestroke and Teleneurology -- Emergency Telepsychiatry -- Role of Telemedicine for Guiding Rural Emergent Neurosurgical Care -- Emergency Ocular Telehealth Services -- Medical Subspecialty Telehealth Consults -- Telemedicine in the Surgical Disciplines -- Pediatric Emergency Telehealth -- Tele-Triage -- Telehealth for Medication for Addiction Treatment -- Supporting Advance Practice Providers in the ED using Telehealth -- Emergency Telehealth Services in the Correctional Setting -- Extending Care Team Access to Out of Hospital Settings via Telehealth -- Remote Physiologic Monitoring -- Direct to Consumer or On-Demand Telehealth -- Telehealth Facilitates Value Based Care in ED Settings -- Tele-ultrasound -- Emerging and Innovative Technologies.