The Telehealth Promise: Better Health Care and Cost Savings for the 21st Century
July 16, 2008
The Alliance for Public Technology (APT) and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) co-sponsored a Brown Bag Lunch on Wednesday, July 16th as part of APT’s Broadband Changed My Life!TM series. The theme of the discussion - The Telehealth Promise: Better Health Care and Cost Savings for the 21st Century – was based on a paper of the same name by Dr. Alexander Vo.
Dr. Vo, Executive Director of the AT&T Center for Telehealth Research and Policy Electronic Health Network at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas was the featured speaker. He explained that the study was limited to “provider to provider” applications and even greater benefits could be realized if the scope was broadened. Click here to see Dr. Vo’s presentation.
Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, also spoke and the discussion was moderated by Joy Howell, the Director of APT’s BBCML campaign. Throughout the presentations and discussion, consensus evolved around the following points:
- A strong broadband network infrastructure is needed for telehealth applications.
- The benefits of implementing telehealth systems far outweigh the costs.
- The greatest challenges are: the current reimbursement model, which favors physical, in-person visits; and the lack of cross-state licensure, which discourages providers.
