The rise of telemedicine

By John D. Halamka, MD As reimbursement evolves from fee for service to alternative payment models, incentives will shift from treating sickness to keeping the population healthy.   New investments will be made in technologies that reach into the home and enhance care team communication.     2016 saw an acceleration of telemedicine/telehealth.   2017 will see exponential growth. Telemedicine is hard to define.   It could be real time video teleconferencing between clinicians (a consult), between a patient and clincian (a visit), or group to group  (tumor board discussion).    It could be the transmission of a static photograph, such as the poisonous mushroom/plant teleconsultation I do 900 times per year.    It could be secure texting to coordinate patient care. Patients might provide care teams with objective data from devices in their homes.  Patients might answer surveys about their mood, activity, or pain. All of these are telemedicine. Many companies will offer cloud-based tools and technologies to support these new workflows.   Some organizations will  use bridging technology to link together every kind of endpoint (Skype, Facetime, commerical telemedicine apps) with every kind of endpoint. There are so many use cases and so many possibilities that one approach will not serve all needs, so most organizations will have a multi-faceted strategy. There are some unanswered questions 1.  How do you bill for telemedicine?  There is a new CPT code, but it’s no...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Tags: Blog Life as a Health Care CIO Source Type: news