Patients

Last month, Psych Associates (Springfield, MO), where I practice, went to an “online office,” which meant every provider in our practice set up a virtual therapy room in their home. We’re all trained up on Telehealth, so ready, here we go! I’m a newbie to the world of virtual therapy so I really didn’t know what to expect, but I’m brave in my work, so I trusted that everything would work out fine. The threat of coming in contact with the deadly coronavirus Covid-19 was real, and of course we all wanted to stay well, and keep our clients well, so we acted quickly. Luckily, it was a smooth transition.

Online Course: “Developing Telemedicine Services”

Open Enrollment

The national award-winning Arizona Telemedicine Program (ATP), headquartered at the University of Arizona Health Sciences in Tucson, Arizona, will conduct a major, online training program regarding the COVID-19 pandemic for health-care providers, administrators, and educators, titled: “Developing Telemedicine Services,” on Monday, March 23, 2020. “Telemedicine is a key capability for healthcare providers and the community they serve to slow the spread of the COVID-19,” notes Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, a pioneer in telemedicine and founding director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program. The ATP has been producing in-person telemedicine and telehealth training programs for the past 20 years. Thousands of individuals, from hundreds of healthcare organizations, have attended these programs and given them high marks. “Now, in response to the COVID-19 pardemic, we are taking the course online for the first time.” He added, “Obviously, this will open the session to a far larger audience, filling an urgent need at this time.”

Home telehealth programs can help patients manage chronic disease, while receiving education and daily guidance from a nurse care coordinator or other health professional. For some reason, however, many patients in home telehealth programs do not adhere to daily check-ins. I am the telehealth specialist and facility e-consult coordinator with the Phoenix Veterans Administration Health Care System. As part of my studies toward a doctoral degree in nursing, I have found a potential solution.

2020 – the first year of the 2020s decade - wow! It’s got a lot going for it overall in terms of potential and good things to come – especially getting an extra day since MMXX is also a Leap Year. What does 2020 hold for telehealth? Hopefully lots of change (positive only) and progress for those already involved and those looking to get involved in this ever-evolving and growing platform for expanding and improving the delivery of healthcare services to everyone, everywhere, every time it’s needed. The Southwest Telehealth Resource Center cherishes and is looking forward to continuing our many partnerships from the 2010s decade and aims to develop even more throughout the Southwest region through our training, technical assistance and outreach offerings. We’ve collected some additional thoughts from our partners about what 2020 will bring to their telehealth adventures and would like to share them here.

Gone are the days when telehealth services were associated with clinical settings only. In the new era of health technology, sick kids can now take virtual trips to the doctor while they are at school!Even as recently as a decade ago, school nurses would offer Band-Aids, administer aspirin, and babysit sick children until their parents picked them up for a doctor’s visit. Now, as telemedicine makes its way into various institutions and even households, more and more locations are turning into health centers. School-based telehealth is a major milestone in particular because it streamlines two spheres at once: it enables better access to healthcare, and helps dodge the considerable dent that poor health puts into a child’s educational experience.

Dr. Valentin Rivish, Director of Telehealth, at the Phoenix Veterans Health Care System, has introduced a telehealth program that will enable Veterans in rehabilitation to continue their physical therapy in their own homes, while connecting with their V.A. health care providers. The program is called V.A. Video Connect.

The healthcare industry seems to be booming by leaps and bounds – in good part due to Telemedicine app development. More and more organizations are seeking different ways, such as e-healthcare, to reduce costs and improve patient care. Being a subset of telehealth, telemedicine uses a broad range of modern technologies and specializes in providing medical services from a distance with the help of software and communication tools.

The idea of having seniors use the internet on a daily basis was something not a lot of people expected. However, as the years went by, even this group couldn’t stay immune to the addictiveness of modern-day technologies and the internet.

More and more, older people today own a smartphone, and for one or another reason, they choose to spend a portion of their time on the internet. How and why they use it are clearly demonstrated in a piece by MediaAlertHelp, which details some reasons for using internet-based health aids and helps us understand some reasons that drive seniors to use technology and the internet, and how they use it.

Telehealth has become a vital tool to deliver timely and effective medical care, particularly in rural areas.  One hospital in Arizona, Yavapai Regional Medical Center (YRMC), is using telehealth to improve patient satisfaction and treat conditions that would otherwise need the services of a “big-city” hospital.

2018 had many successes in the telehealth arena – check out some of our past blogs for highlights! There is, however, still much to be accomplished, so looking forward we asked our colleagues around the country what they are looking forward to in 2019. We hope you find some inspiration, new directions and novel ideas in these thoughts to help guide your 2019 adventures in telehealth!

Elizabeth A Krupinski, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Southwest Telehealth Resource Center
The SWTRC is looking forward to watching trends in artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can not only impact Telehealth and healthcare in general, but how AI companies and investigators will effectively and efficiently integrate AI into the clinical information environment and workflow. Being embedded in an academic environment also provides us with some unique opportunities to partner on grants with others developing and expanding their Telehealth footprint, and the SWTRC looks forward to be a vital part of these grants and helping provide training and related Telehealth expertise.

Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, FCAP, FATA
Co-Director, Southwest Telehealth Resource Center
I'm looking forward to leveraging the vast potential that emerging 5G mobile cellular phone technologies promise to deliver to the health care industry.  5G delivers gigabit speeds, reduced latency, higher system capacity, and the massive device connectivity needed for optimizing personalized patient care. 5G networks will enable new classes of digital technologies aimed at improving treatment outcomes. Telehealth's "e-classrooms–of-the future" will promote greater patient participation in their personal healthcare teams while addressing, at the same time, the need for significant improvements in US population health literacy across the entire country.