From Gaming to Healing (Video Games): Once seen as isolating, video games are now valuable tools for mental health and rehabilitation. They foster social connection, build coping skills and empathy, and make repetitive therapy more engaging through game elements like goals and rewards, helping improve patient outcomes.
AI in Telemental Health: Rather than replacing clinicians, AI works best as a "clinical co-pilot" that boosts efficiency and supports better decisions. It can flag high-risk patients for early intervention, extend care between visits through tools like symptom tracking and journaling, and help keep human providers at the center of care.
Managing your nutrition doesn't always require a trip to the doctor’s office. Whether you are looking to improve your daily habits or managing a chronic condition, "telenutrition", nutrition care delivered via phone or video, is making healthy living more accessible than ever.
Here is how you can use digital tools to transform your health, along with resources for providers looking to expand their virtual services...
February is more than just a month of roses and chocolate. While the world celebrates Valentine’s Day with paper hearts and grand gestures, the American Heart Association (the Association) uses this time to spotlight a different kind of love: the lifelong commitment to your cardiovascular health. As technology evolves, our ability to care for our hearts is no longer confined to the four walls of a doctor's office.
As a geriatrician, I serve as a primary care physician for older adults. In my practice, there are patients across the continuum of medical complexity with all levels of physical and cognitive functioning. A universal theme I see in practice is that it’s hard to keep up with health, healthcare, and health insurance plans. It can be challenging for my patients to come into the office for an in-person visit. They may have to drive a long distance, their medical appointment may interfere with their routine, such as a weekly exercise class, or if they have limited mobility, leaving the house is a feat and getting into the clinic can be quite burdensome.
On February 2, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), published a final rule that expands on, and makes permanent, certain opioid-related telehealth flexibilities initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the rule, authorized providers will be able to start patients on buprenorphine or methadone—medications used to treat opioid use disorders—pursuant to a telehealth visit and without needing an in-person visit.
Conversations around healthcare increasingly center on digital equity and inclusion, especially as more communities across the country embrace telehealth, expand broadband connectivity, and consequently recognize the importance, more than ever, of digital literacy.
According to Jaleen Johnson, program manager for the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center (NRTRC), social determinants of health have long been connected to digital literacy and broadband connectivity. However, to better understand that relationship, digital equity and inclusion must first be defined, and an explanation provided as to why these concepts are important, and how they relate to healthcare.
COVID-19 is frequently attributed with introducing healthcare providers to the world of telehealth, but for a hospital system serving patients in Colorado and Kansas, the expansion of telehealth has been the norm for almost a decade.
With growth comes a need to negotiate space in tight hospital settings. HealthONE’s remedy was to bring all telehealth under one roof at their Denver headquarters by creating the Virtual Care Center.
From Dr. Steven Hansen’s Arizona Humane Society office, you may have heard a sigh of relief when Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed Senate Bill 1053 into law on May 9. Beginning in August, veterinarians licensed in the state will legally be able to provide veterinary care through telemedicine, a care alternative many have become accustomed to on the human side of healthcare.
Currently, there’s a six-week waiting list for pet owners who need the Humane Society’s subsidized services at their clinics in Maricopa County. Bringing telemedicine into the picture will make a difference.
It’s tough to believe that almost 10 years ago, we began to realize a substantial cure for hepatitis C was just around the corner. When the ION-3 study results came out about the medication combination sofosbuvir/ledipasvir, there was a tangible sense that we were about to have an achievable cure.
Step forward to the present day. A handful of innovative new treatments have come and gone, leaving us with powerful options including two that can cover all the virus’s genotypes in one fell swoop.