The Challenges Of Implementing Telehealth

As telehealth adoption continues to grow, there are still some significant challenges that need to be addressed before telehealth can achieve its full potential.

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I can’t say that?telehealth ?is a new concept. It has been used in medicine before, but it’s only been implemented in a very limited way.

For example, the use of video-conferencing systems has already been used for decades. But it was not until the 1990s that video conferencing systems were introduced to the?healthcare industry .

In advance of their use, researchers had to delve into the science of telehealth. They had to understand how people interact with different technologies, such as video conferencing systems and computerized health management systems (CHMS), and what factors determine whether a system is effective or not.

How TeleHealth Works

Telehealth allows patients and clinicians to communicate online with each other and with health care providers. Telehealth technology uses the Internet, wireless or other communications networks, and telecommunication devices such as smartphones or tablets for patient-doctor communication.

The idea is that the?doctor ?can talk to a patient’s doctor, who can talk to the patient’s doctor, and so on, all over the world in real time. This allows doctors and patients to work at their own convenience even if they are hundreds of kilometers apart.

There are many telehealth applications available today:

• Telecare: A way for a patient who has an illness that requires an intensive treatment to arrange for the treatment while he is in his home country
• Telemedicine: A way for a doctor in one country to prescribe medicine that has been made available in another country
• Telepsychiatry: A way for a psychiatric physician to make appointments with his patients anywhere in the world using communication tools like Skype or Zoom

Interoperability between different telehealth platforms is key. The main challenge lies in interoperability between different telehealth systems (e.g., between CDSH/EHRs and EHRs). In addition, interoperability between different health care systems (e.g., medical device interoperability) may be required as well as interoperability between different telehealth systems (e.g., within EMS systems).

How Telehealth is Beneficial to Patients and Clinicians

Telehealth can be used to improve the quality of care and make healthcare more convenient. Telehealth is a trend today, and it is going to be more common in the future. Healthcare systems should take advantage of this trend by adopting telehealth...

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I was inspired to write this article after my conversation with?Prof. Joe Kvedar , MD – Senior Advisor – MGH Center for Innovation in Digital Healthcare; Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School; Board Chair at American Telemedicine Association; Author & Thought Leader in Connected Health.

Watch?Episode #53 ?of Digital Health & Wearables Series:

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