NIH https://www.nih.com held the Workshop titled Improving Rural Health Through Telehealth-Guided Provider-to-Provider Communication brought experts together to present their thoughts on Rural Provider-to-Provider Telehealth (RT).
Recognizing the significant potential of RT and the need for more information, the workshop was cosponsored by NIH’s, Office of Disease Prevention (ODP), HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, AHRQ, and CDC. This initiative included a review conducted by the Oregon Health and Science University’s Evidence-based Practice Center under contract to AHRQ.
Ideas and thoughts in the draft report were presented by Mary Wakefield, Ph.D, University of Texas at Austin, Joanne Mather Conroy, M.D., Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, Sara McLafferty, Ph.D, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Robert Moser, M.D, University of Kansas, Velma McBride Murry, Ph.D, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Jayashri Sankaranarayanan, Ph.D University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Rebecca Slifkin, Ph.D, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The absence of the local availability of specialists and high level hospital care is very concerning since there is significantly higher rates of serious health conditions in rural communities. This has resulted in the higher proportion of older residents in rural communities developing heart disease and cancer over time.
Today, the situation in rural areas related to hospital care is dire since 101 rural hospitals have closed over the past seven years with the pandemic further creating problems for rural residents. However, the use of telehealth technology has been adopted more than ever to effectively extend the reach of healthcare services.
As a result, the need for telehealth guided collaboration between healthcare providers is critical. Presently, the plan is to typically connect rural-based generalist providers with urban-based specialists across an array of disciplines to include medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and behavioral health[LB1] .
The goal is to address health problems ranging from care for people with Hepatitis C to trauma, geriatric pharmacology, and maternal morbidity. By using RT, specialty expertise can help rural providers manage care locally rather than initiate referrals or transfers to urban settings.
Some of recommendations include:
- Developing a consistent definition of different types of RT that can be applied across programs, providers, and organizations.
- Providing for a Telehealth Resource to help key stakeholders develop a consensus-based definition of RT
- Expanding research to examine the effect of hospital and practice consolidation
- Examining whether disparities exist related to smaller hospitals or providers left out of partnerships, integrated systems, ACO network, or other value-based models of care
- Engaging providers in shaping and evaluating RT to better meet community and population needs
- Ensuring that studies capture and assess the impact of environmental factors such as telehealth parity laws, state licensure requirements that may enable RT sustainability
Today, there is not enough information on the extent RT is used nationally in terms of types and volume of services, how uptake varies across diverse settings, organizational structures, and provider types.
The extent to which telehealth usage influences RT uptake has not been measured, including interest in RT, access to devices and a variety of telehealth modalities, and the adequacy of broadband internet connectivity.
Go to https://prevention.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/NIH-P2P-ruralHealthPanelReportDraft-FINAL-508.pdf for more information on the workshop.