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Campus telemedicine – students on smartphones

Campus Telemedicine or No Medicine?

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College students—famous for their late-night cram sessions and 2 a.m. pizzas—have never been the model of perfect health, but with campuses starting to embrace telemedicine, this could soon change. Today’s students, Generation Z, are the least likely generation to visit a primary care doctor; only 55 percent even have a designated primary care physician, and 1.7 million college students are uninsured. To entice students to seek care more readily when it’s needed, telemedicine start-up 98point6 is partnering with Ohio Wesleyan University to offer students free campus telemedicine services. Read more

pregnant women using laptop at home

Prenatal Telemedicine Simplifies Care

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Pregnancy isn’t an illness, but prenatal care in the U.S. typically involves 12 to 14 appointments during the 40-week term. Hopefully, these visits simply confirm that the mother and fetus are healthy. For low-risk expectant mothers, however, some of these appointments may be unnecessary, researchers say; the costs and inconvenience incurred—such as lost wages or child care—are not insignificant. At Mayo Clinic, a prenatal telemedicine program is easing the burden on low-risk mothers-to-be and their obstetric providers. Read more

Stethoscope and gavel

Year in Review: 2017 Telemedicine Legislation

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Over the last year, 63 pieces of telemedicine legislation focusing on telemedicine were approved in 34 states, according to the Center for Connected Health Policy. These bills facilitated multi-state medical licenses, defined terminology, and established care standards, among other issues. Read more

newborn baby

Pediatric Telemedicine Combats Child Blindness

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With few eye specialists on hand, how do you fight preventable infant blindness? Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the largest pediatric multispecialty medical group in the U.S., approached the problem with technology. Rather than waiting for infrequent medical missions trips to Armenia, Thomas Lee, MD, and his team use pediatric telemedicine so that specialists in L.A. can train surgeons in remote locations and empower them to combat child blindness without waiting for assistance. Read more

Stethoscope and gavel

Telemedicine Legislation Heartily Embraced by Senate

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A telemedicine initiative from New Mexico may soon become a nationwide program. Earlier this week, the Senate unanimously approved the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes (ECHO) Act, which champions the system developed five years ago at the University of New Mexico (UNM) to increase access to specialists in rural, underserved regions. Read more

A doctor demonstrates telemedicine on a laptop to a group of medical students and residents

AMA Urges Telemedicine Training for Medical Students and Residents

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Considering that telemedicine is a relative newcomer to the practice of medicine—compared to, say, ECG, which is well over a century old—it may come as no surprise that no formalized telemedicine training currently exists at the medical student or resident level. To correct this, the American Medical Association (AMA) recently adopted a policy to make sure that medical students and residents know how to utilize telemedicine in clinical practice. More specifically, the policy urges the accrediting bodies to add core competencies for telemedicine to their programs. Read more

Schoolboy with sore throat

Telemedicine in Schools Makes It Harder to Play Hooky

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With the rapid growth of telemedicine, missing school to see the doctor may soon be unheard of.

Thanks to a grant, Burke County Public Schools will implement Health-e-Schools program this fall. This initiative, offered by North Carolina’s Center for Rural Health Innovation, is being funded by a $701,207 grant from the Duke Endowment Grant Project.

The grant was earmarked for rural areas with less access to healthcare than urban regions. By introducing telemedicine in schools, the program will make it easier and faster for students to receive care. The goal of the initiative is to extend the reach of primary care physicians, rather than replace them. Read more