Industry News and Articles
- Hearing on Capitol Hill - Federal Telemedicine News
The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs on June 16th held a hearing to discuss current Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare services provided in rural areas. Robert Jesse, M.D., PhD, Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health at the Veterans Health Administration, appeared before the Committee to describe how telehealth is helping veterans in rural areas. According to the VA, between 30 and 50 percent of telehealth activity in the VA supports veterans in rural and highly rural areas with ongoing growth anticipated.
- The Doctor Will See You Now. Please Log On. - New York Times
One day last summer, Charlie Martin felt a sharp pain in his lower back. But he couldn’t jump into his car and rush to the doctor’s office or the emergency room: Mr. Martin, a crane operator, was working on an oil rig in the South China Sea off Malaysia. He could, though, get in touch with a doctor thousands of miles away, via two-way video. Using an electronic stethoscope that a paramedic on the rig held in place, Dr. Oscar W. Boultinghouse, an emergency medicine physician in Houston, listened to Mr. Martin’s heart.
- Telehealth Links Doctors to Remote Patients in Need. - Information Week
New telehealth initiatives across the country are starting to address critical shortages of many medical specialists, helping provide care to patients who previously didn't have access. Widespread adoption of e-health records is expected to boost telehealth adoption even further. That's because in addition to videoconferencing capabilities that let clinicians remotely communicate with each other and patients, digitized health records will provide remote specialists with more complete information about those patients.
- Internet Visits With Doctors Can Beat Office Appointments - The Wallstreet Journal
The average American's health-care experience is fraught with high cost, poor service and uncertain quality. But the prudent practice of medicine online would improve health care on all three counts. Patients want access to safe, reliable medical care on the Internet, just like banking, shopping or booking a flight. Eighty percent of the public want doctors to use email to communicate with patients, but only 9% of physicians actually do that even occasionally.
- Telemedicine Offers Patient Satisfaction - WebMD
A new study shows that patients are very satisfied with the medical care they receive through telemedicine. This is the largest study yet looking at the effectiveness of virtual outreach medicine, as it's come to be known, writes Paul Wallace, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London. His report appears in the latest issue of the journal the Lancet.
- Telemedicine Can Improve Rural Healthcare While Lowering Costs - The Hill
We are fortunate to live in an age where technology can help us overcome the distance between doctors and patients. Telemedicine allows doctors and patients to connect through video imaging and telecommunications technologies without long-distance travel, while at the same time reducing costs. I believe that telemedicine can continue to have a significant role in improving rural health care into the future.
- The Doctor is in - Online - The Wallstreet Journal
More doctors are going digital as a growing number of health insurers cover online medical consultations -- where patients get treated for minor ailments via online chats, video conferencing and interactive questionnaires. "An increasing number of health insurers are either doing this on a more global basis or are conducting" pilot tests...
- Telemedicine helps experts treat stroke from afar - USA Today
Examining stroke patients via videoconferencing (telemedicine) is as effective as a bedside exam and can increase patient access to stroke specialists, says a scientific statement released this week by the American Heart Association. Stroke patients require rapid assessment in order to determine if they're eligible for time-sensitive treatments such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which can save brain function and reduce stroke-related disability...
- Telemedicine,Telehealth, and the Consumer - Telemedicine Information Exchange
It's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to realize that telemedicine will soon be just another way to see a health professional, just as seeing friends and family while talking to them on the phone is becoming commonplace. Farther down the road, it has been theorized that we each could have a 'Personal Diagnosis System' as part of our home entertainment centers. This system would monitor our daily health status and automatically notify a health professional if we become ill.
- Are Doctors Ready for Virtual Visits? - New York Times
Telemedicine has the potential to improve quality of care by allowing clinicians in one “control center” to monitor, consult and even care for and perform procedures on patients in multiple locations. A rural primary care practitioner who sees a patient with a rare skin lesion, for example, can get expert consultation from a dermatologist at a center hundreds of miles away.
- When The Best Doctor Is Far Away - Parade Magazine
Telemedicine has the potential to improve quality of care by allowing clinicians in one “control center” to monitor, consult and even care for and perform procedures on patients in multiple locations. A rural primary care practitioner who sees a patient with a rare skin lesion, for example, can get expert consultation from a dermatologist at a center hundreds of miles away.
