The key focus of the “Telemedicine & Telehealth Service Provider Showcase (SPS): Advancing Telehealth Partnerships” www.ttspsworld.com held October 6 and 7, 2014 in Phoenix provided valuable input on building partnerships to better enable connected health access and delivery. The goal for partnerships between healthcare providers and telehealth services is to improve patient care and outcomes.
Sponsors for the Showcase included Arizona Health Science Center http://ahsc.arizona.edu, GlobalMed www.globalmed.com, University of Arizona Health Network www.uahealth.com, and Banner Health www.bannerhealth.com.
“Over-reaching regulation often makes the partnerships less effective”, said Joel E. Barthelemy, CEO of GlobalMed® and a member of the SPS National Advisory Board. “Medicare restrictions on reimbursement, physician licensure barriers are disincentives resulting in a lack of collaboration between providers and developers, a disruptive workflow integration, and a general lack of knowledge of the solutions that may be available.
During a panel discussion on October 6the, Christopher Veremakis, MD Medical Director for the Center for Innovative Care at Mercy Health www.mercy.net told more than 200 attendees, “The Rotary Club members in Independence, Kansas say they can do everything else online, so they want to know why they can’t see a cardiologist that way since they don’t want to have to drive to Wichita or Tulsa many miles away.”
Telemedicine and telehealth specialty services have become more affordable. The market for commercial services is expanding. “That’s what made this conference so relevant.” Jay Shore, MD, Chief Medical Officer for AccessCare Services www.ncaccesscare.org said. He added, “The conference was valuable as a diverse set of perspectives and business models in telehealth were presented.”
According to Elizabeth Krupinski, PhD, Associate Director of Evaluation for the Arizona Telemedicine Program http://telemedicine.arizona.edu, “Our hope for the Showcase was to develop partnerships between telehealth providers and those who use telehealth services. This showcase has made these partnerships possible and many of the ideas presented were enthusiastically endorsed by the attendees.”