Board on Health Care Services, Institute of Medicine, et al.
. Date of publication 2012 Nov 20;volume ():.
1. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary.
Board on Health Care Services; Institute of Medicine.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2012 Nov.
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.
PMID: 24901186
