Telehealth News and Market Developments
Wall Street Journal: How to Make Telehealth Services Easier – and More Accessible – for Everyone (8/19) – Telemedicine’s ultimate success will depend in large part on technology – how seamless patients will find the process, and the digital divide that can sometimes keep many physicians from offering telehealth services and patients from accessing them. This article looks at how some health care providers are making it easier to use telemedicine and the challenges that remain. Alliance board member Johns Hopkins Medicine, for example, sees preparation as key to ensuring a successful appointment and developed a tool that tries to identify patients who are at risk of being unable to complete a video visit.
Penn Medicine: Penn Medicine Awarded $5.7 Million NCI Grant for New Cancer Telehealth Research Center of Excellence (8/18) – The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is one of four institutions nationally to receive a five-year, $5.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a new research center to develop and test advanced methods of telehealth delivery for cancer care, with a focus on promoting health equity. Penn Medicine will fund the design and testing of new telehealth strategies across the lung cancer care continuum, from screening to molecular testing to survivorship, with an emphasis on lung cancer morbidity and mortality, health disparities, and the digital divide. It will also incentivize more research on telehealth’s impact on patient outcomes, patient-provider communication, and health care use.
Becker’s Hospital Review: Telehealth's Importance in Rural Communities, per Dr. James Blum (8/17) – In this article, James Blum, MD, chief medical informatics officer and associate professor of anesthesia at the University of Iowa Health Care, highlights how telemedicine investment is crucial to address Iowa’s rural population. Telemedicine can avoid long trips for in-person visits and provide access to inpatient services to those who would otherwise be unable to access them.
Advisory Board: Why a Longtime Telemedicine Skeptic Changed Her Mind (8/16) – In this article, primary care physician Danielle Ofri explains how she became a supporter of telemedicine after being a long-time “staunch defender of old-fashioned, one-on-one, direct medical care.” During the pandemic, Ofri's opinion on telemedicine started to shift as she discovered the benefits of connecting with patients virtually. Most patients have complicated lives—they may be balancing child care, demanding careers, and overwhelming transportation logistics. Ofri realized making time for patients to speak with their doctor over phone or video reduced no-show rates to zero.
mHealth Intelligence: Michigan Payer Offers Members Access to Virtual Maternity Care Program (8/16) – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has partnered with Maven Clinic to offer a virtual maternity care program that provides parenthood, pregnancy, postpartum, and pediatrics services. The virtual maternal care program will provide three services related to family building, maternity, and parenting and pediatrics. These services include preconception and egg freezing support, a year-long program providing pregnancy and postpartum care, and childcare navigation assistance.
University of California, Los Angeles: UCLA Receives $500,000 to Study the Impact of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic (8/16) – UCLA has received $500,000 from Arnold Ventures to study how the use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic affected access to, utilization of and the cost of health care in the United States. Under the two-year grant, the research team will investigate how telemedicine affected equitable access to care and whether it ultimately lowered or raised costs to U.S. payers and patients during the pandemic.
Healthcare IT News: How Telemedicine Can Leverage the Shrinking Number of Physicians (8/15) – Marlene McDermott, vice president of therapy services at telepsychiatry provider Array Behavioral Care and a licensed therapist, contends that telehealth could partially be health care’s answer to helping alleviate burnout and staffing struggles, but cautions that resources and support are needed – so the industry doesn't just create a new burnout cycle for clinicians.
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