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Street sign points to Road to Success during telemedicine revolution

Top 4 Tips for Navigating the Telemedicine Revolution Smoothly

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At least one good thing is coming from the COVID-19 pandemic. By necessity, 2020 has seen huge gains in telemedicine utilization as providers and patients seek to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus. This telemedicine revolution is transforming the provider-patient relationship, both positively and negatively, including the unintended consequences of such rapid adoption of telemedicine. Industry specialists are finding that the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR), with its unplanned side effects, provides a relevant and useful model for smoothing the transition to telemedicine for both patients and doctors. Read more

Dr holding diagram of patient info telehealth interoperability

ATA Calls for Telehealth Interoperability

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This week, the American Telemedicine Association held its annual conference in New Orleans with a call for interoperability, suggesting that connected care won’t truly happen until providers, patients, and payers are fully connected. A white paper released by the ATA emphasized the importance of working together and sharing data, as opposed to the current situation of fragmented processes and siloed information. With increased telehealth interoperability, said the ATA, telemedicine services will continue to advance in efficiency, quality, productivity, and financial sustainability. Read more

sick woman on telemedicine visit

6 Things We Learned at ATA 2017

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This year’s American Telemedicine Association conference just wrapped up this week in Orlando. The theme, Telehealth 2.0, emphasized that when it’s done right, telehealth can benefit patients and providers, and they both prefer it. Throughout the numerous panels and talks, the tremendous growth of the industry showcased innovation, technology, and workable solutions. In case you missed it, here are the top six takeaways that we learned from the conference. Read more

Mobile images from professional cameras and smartphones

Are Mobile Images Good Enough for Telemedicine Consults?

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Is a professional-level camera required for on-the-go telemedicine consults? The rise of healthcare using mobile devices—known as mhealth—is leading to questions about whether the images taken with smartphones can be trusted for accurate clinical diagnoses. Read more

Laptop using swyMed

7 Features for Telemedicine Software That You Can’t Live Without

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When you’re faced with a number of telemedicine products, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?

You could try consulting the government; according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the defining feature of telemedicine is real-time video communication. This means that a doctor talking on any video conferencing software can be considered “telemedicine.” Unfortunately, this standard is too vague to offer useful guidance in choosing the best telemedicine solution for your healthcare organization. Read more

Let’s Operate on Interoperability

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Wednesday, MedCity News and Life as a Healthcare CIO ran what I believe to be a very important piece on interoperability by Dr. John D. Halamka. I don’t agree with him that attempts to legislate interoperability into being should be jettisoned completely, but most of his points ring true.

Early on he asks the question that SHOULD be core to the HIT and Telemedicine industries, but especially for EHR vendors: “So what is our next step to help providers…to the point that Congress no longer wants to legislate the solution to the problem?” Read more