Telemedicine has never been more viable than it is today, thanks in part to the incredibly connected, data-driven way of the modern world. Yet despite the promise and -vast potential for telemedicine-, it remains largely in the pre-adoption stages across the country, waiting for the first domino to fall that will allow it to revolutionize healthcare. This is because modern medicine is billed according...
Telehealth: Who really needs it? This is a question healthcare professionals are asking less and less these days, as 84% believe telehealth will become an important part of their operations. Despite the growing consensus among experts about telehealth's indispensability, it is still worthwhile to go through a few of the reasons why adopting this technology now is a wise move. Five Reasons Telehealth...
It is an exciting time for healthcare as it evolves into the connected age, and it is no surprise that mental health is joining the telehealth revolution as well. Increased access to mental health services means better health care and higher quality of life for patients in any location. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, in 2012 there were an estimated -43.7 million adults- in the...
Telehealth, or online mediated patient care, hasn’t become the future of healthcare without a little help. Aided by several other advances in computing, namely big data analytics and pervasive sensing, Telehealth is poised to reinvent how the world provides healthcare. Wearables now enable real time healthcare data collection and big data statistical analysis will provide insights into correlations...
Two words describe the march of telehealth: steady and forward. On nearly a weekly basis, states all over the country are voting the legal architecture into place that will pave the way for telehealth to become an important fixture in modern healthcare service. Legislators from Idaho to Florida and executives from diverse healthcare companies agree; telehealth is the future of healthcare. We must ask:...
If you haven’t heard about telemedicine yet, you will soon. For those who don’t know, telemedicine is “the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunication technology.” In simple terms, it is the use of modern technology in order to provide interactive healthcare. It doesn’t take much to realize the amount of positives that can arise from telemedicine. For example, imagine a...
Hospitals use telemedicine platforms in normal, profit-driven ways as do other providers. Follow up care, virtual appointments, and multiple provider collaborations, are examples. An innovative practice called community paramedicine involves utilizing paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) for in-home care. Traditionally, EMTs show up once they are called and transport the patient to the...
Doc-in-the-box is a term that was first seen in print in the 1980s, as a not so flattering description of health care providers who see patients either at a walk-in or freestanding clinic. Patients are usually charged a flat fee or hourly rate for services rendered, and in recent years it has become the model for visiting a provider online. But with a telemedicine industry that is predicted by a BBC...
On March 24, 2015, Utah Governor Gary Herbert passed the HB 121 bill to expand interstate telehealth coverage in Utah. The bill, which makes Utah the third state to have such regulations as part of the Federal State Medical Board's -compact-, will allow medical practitioners increased permission to use telehealth technology across state borders once four more states sign on to the compact. The passage...
I just attended a very useful meeting, where there is a consensus that maybe how we practice primary care, an ideal, is actually a failure in reality. To some, it could look like a big power trip for a physician to invite you into her or his “territory,” ask you to sit on the end of a hard examination table half-naked, and offer no recognition that you took a half day off and maybe a quarter of tank...