Technology

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.

In January 2026, as rural healthcare continues to face challenges like geographic isolation, provider shortages, and limited infrastructure, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program stands out as a pivotal initiative. This $50 billion effort awards funds to all 50 states to bolster rural health systems, with a strong emphasis on innovative capabilities like telemedicine and telehealth.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) “Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP),” notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), published September 15, 2025, provides States with an historic funding opportunity that seeks to help them transform healthcare delivery for their rural residents.   Each state can separately apply for a portion of $25 billion dollars of “Workload Funding” which is in addition to $25 billion dollars of “Baseline Funding”.

Have you ever had patients say that virtual visits and technology are difficult? Have your patients avoided virtual visits due to their lack of comfort with virtual care? Have your patients ever asked for a resource center or for someone to practice virtual sessions with to overcome any challenges? The Veterans Health Administration has numerous approaches to help veterans with virtual care and technology adoption.

Janet Major, Associate Director for Innovation and Digital Health at the Arizona Telemedicine Program, based at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, was recently honored as an American Telemedicine Association Fellow during the American Telemedicine Association annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday, March 5, 2023.

Each year the Association recognizes members of distinction as new Fellows. Election to the American Telemedicine Association College of Fellows recognizes significant achievements in telemedicine, service to the general telemedicine community, and service to the Association. Joining Major in this year’s class of Fellows are William "Bill" Paschall, Senior Vice President with Clear Arch Health, and Teresa Rincon, Senior Telehealth Consultant with Blue Cirrus Consulting and Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Graduate School of Nursing.

The group chose to focus initially on video visits for those in need of mental health care.  We succeeded in step one: we surveyed 16 mental health provider organizations to find out what data they were collecting, and how success was being measured in 2020.  The organizations ranged from large university medical centers to private practices in nine states.  Not surprisingly, the data and metrics varied widely, even across large university-based systems.

In the early days of the Covid pandemic, Dianne Connery realized something needed to be done for people in her rural Texas community to help connect folks to their medical appointments.

Connery, director of the Pottsboro Area Library in Pottsboro, Texas, said it started when one woman with pulmonary disease came to the library for help, desperate to meet with her doctor but too high risk to come to his office—a two-hour drive south to Dallas.

It’s the start of Telehealth Awareness Week, and Ann Mond Johnson, American Telemedicine Association CEO, is beaming as she reflects on the growth of this second annual event.

“The number of endorsing partners for this second Telehealth Awareness Week has doubled (since the first),” Mond Johnson says, adding that the first had 25 endorsing partners, and this year’s has grown to 50, including organizations like Easter Seals, and the Association of American Medical Colleges. “To us, this means the messages that telehealth is important, needed, and accepted are being heard.”

After a Veteran gets milk from the dairy aisle, and some bread from the bakery section, he stops at the ATLAS pod in Walmart and has a healthcare visit with his/her mental health, specialty, or medical provider.

According to a recent study, one in five adults polled about health care during the coronavirus pandemic said that they or someone in their household delayed receiving medical care or were unable to get care, due to office closures or shutdowns.

Although the pollsters focused questions about doctor or dental appointments, providers across the board experienced disruption in their specialty areas, including Peggy Stein, OTD, OTR/L, CHT, an Occupational Therapist in Oregon.