Transforming care delivery through telemedicine

Introduction The last decade has seen an explosion in the use of telehealth and telemedicine in both the health and the healthcare sector. From wearable devices, smartphone apps, and home monitoring equipment to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant video chat capabilities – specifically where data are kept private and secure – and remote capable robotics, technology and healthcare have collided over the last decade to dramatically transform the way that we deliver healthcare. In truth, however, this is part of a much bigger societal shift in how we shop, communicate, travel, socialize, and eat. Technology is ever present in our lives and healthcare has actually been slower to adopt change than many other industries. Most (95%) Americans have SMS-capable cellphones and computers (84%), about half (45%) have smartphones, two-thirds (67%) use social media, and 90 percent are interested in technology-based platforms to improve health. The global market for mHealth healthcare-related technology has more than quintupled over the last 5 years from 4.5 billion in 2013 to a projected 23 billion in 2017. There isn't a single definition of telehealth or telemedicine, in part because since the early days of use cases only for space travel and military medicine, the landscape has been (and is) in perpetual flux. The World Health Organization defines telehealth as “the delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by all health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health care providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities.” The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), home to the US government's Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT), defines telehealth as “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.” HRSA also makes a distinction between telehealth and telemedicine, defining the latter as referring “specifically to remote clinical services.” For the purposes of payment, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Policy explain that “telemedicine seeks to improve a patient's health by permitting two-way, real-time interactive communication between the patient, and the physician or practitioner at the distant site.