Report: Telehealth a Possible Solution to Health Care Challenges

Telehealth can be a useful tool for health care providers to address issues related to access and quality of care, resource management and the growing costs of care, according to a report released on Monday by global business technology company CSC, NextGov‘s “Health IT Update” reports (Pulley, “Health IT Update,” NextGov, 6/6).

According to the report — titled “Telemedicine: An Essential Technology for Reformed Healthcare” — global health reform initiatives are changing how care is provided and creating new challenges that telehealth can help to resolve.

Details of the Report

For the report, CSC researchers identified various health care practices and reform initiatives in several countries, and evaluated the benefits and challenges of telehealth.

According to the report, telehealth technologies helped health care providers:

• Address rising costs of care;
• Offer improved quality of care;
• Meet demands for care;
• Overcome resource shortages; and
• Achieve patient satisfaction.

The researchers added that the telehealth programs were successful in a variety of care delivery and health management settings, “ranging from the most intensive care setting in the hospital to health and wellness monitoring at home.”

Identifying Barriers

The report identified several barriers limiting broader use of telehealth, including:

• Legacy health care delivery models;
• Regulatory restrictions;
• Payment policies; and
• Technical issues.

As a result, it will be necessary to develop “strategies and tactics for eliminating or mitigating [the barriers’] impact,” the researchers wrote (CMIO, 6/8).

Overcoming the Barriers

The report suggests that health care providers might find it easier to incorporate telehealth into their medical practices if they:

Select a specific health care issue that the technology could address;

• Focus on “immediate needs and opportunities”; and
• Examine local and regional efforts that remove the barriers to telehealth use (“Health IT Update,” NextGov, 6/6).