Word of the Day: telehealth

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |October 6, 2017

telehealth Telehealth is the transmission of health-related services or information over the telecommunications infrastructure. The term covers both telemedicine, which includes remote patient monitoring, and non-clinical elements of the healthcare system, such as education. Telehealth examinations can be performed by physicians, nurses or other healthcare professionals over a videoconference connection to answer a patient's specific question about their condition. A telehealth visit can also be a remote substitute for a regular physician exam or as a follow-up visit to a previous care episode. Convenience, for both sides of the care equation, is one of the major benefits of telehealth. Patients can communicate with physicians from their homes, or the patient can travel to a nearby public telehealth kiosk where a physician can conduct a thorough inspection of the patient's well-being. In the United States, differences in state telemedicine licensure laws complicate the practice of telehealth. Some states require physicians to have full medical licenses to be able to practice telemedicine, while other states mandate physicians have special telemedicine licenses. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for telehealth services, such as remote checkups, has slowly been catching up to the level of in-person healthcare and the majority of states provide some amount of financial reimbursement to providers who perform telehealth visits. The American Medical Association is one of the major healthcare groups that called for standards to be applied to telehealth to give patients more access to remote care services. The American Telemedicine Association, established in 1993, promotes the delivery of care through remote means and hosts a yearly conference on the latest news and developments in telehealth. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also supports the development of telehealth. A bill introduced in Congress in 2015 would allow qualified VA health professionals to treat U.S. veterans without requiring the patient and physician to be in the same state. Quote of the Day "Adding telehealth as another way to communicate electronically with patients offers better patient satisfaction and engagement." - Reda Chouffani   Trending Terms telemedicine remote patient monitoring kiosk American Telemedicine Association mHealth IoMT   Learning Center Telehealth challenges: Where does the data go? Among telehealth challenges is the lack of interoperability and not knowing exactly where data from telehealth encounters resides. Benefits of telehealth include convenience, flexibility Hospitals are considering the benefits of telehealth for their patients, such as the ability to provide specialty care for patients in rural or remote areas. Patient portal technology won't disappear, is important to telehealth Patient portal technology seems like old technology at this point. However, they aren't going anywhere. Telehealth technologies help save healthcare organization $4.6 million and more Implementing telehealth technologies enabled Emory Healthcare to save money, reduce costs and achieve better patient outcomes. Change management culture to support telehealth technologies Change management culture is the key to successfully implementing telehealth technologies, experts said. Quiz Yourself What does WMTS stand for? a. wired medical telemedicine services b. wireless medical telemetry services Answer   Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2016 TechTarget. All rights reserved.