Telehealth always evolving, is expected to grow and has the potential to vastly change how care is delivered. Leaders in the field presented their ideas at the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (IHT2) Summit http://ihealthtran.com/washington/washingtonhome held in Washington D.C June 16-17, 2015.
As Luigi Leblanc, Chief Technology Officer, Capital Clinical Integrated Network (CCIN) www.marycenter.org/ccin explained, “CCIN works with District of Columbia residents on Medicaid to help improve their health through home-based support and resources. The CCIN program was funded by a three year $14.9 million grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation http://innovation.cms.gov.
CCIN is comprised of D.C Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCO), community health centers, mental health providers, hospitals, and health technology specialists using an electronic-based care coordination system to document and manage participants in the program.
CCIN is the founder of the Capital Partners in Care Community Health Information Exchange enabling clinics and hospitals to electronically share participant health information within their clinic’s existing EHRs, rather than use a separate network. As an extension of their care coordination program, CCIN has deployed telehealth software linking high cost residents to the CCIN network of care providers via video conferencing.
The University of Maryland Medical Center http://umm.edu recently teamed up with the Carroll Hospital Center www.carrollhospitalcenter.org on a tele-stroke program to provide immediate 24/7 academic medical center expertise. Consultations are provided by video conferencing along with radiology images and laboratory reports being shared seamlessly
As Director of Telehealth at the University of Maryland Medical Center, John Kornak mentioned how vital it is to financially sustain the growing telehealth program but the question is how to accomplish financial growth effectively.
According to Steven Dean, Administrative Director for Telemedicine Operations at Inova Health System www.inova.org, the health system’s telemedicine department is actively providing teleICU, telestroke, telepsychiatry, telepediatrics, and teledermatology programs. Future projects under development include online video visits, telecardiology, home health telemedicine, and acute in-transit care.
InTouch Health www.intouchhealth.com is actively expanding their telehealth network and services, reports Tim Wright, Vice President for Strategy and Service Line Development. As he explained, “InTouch is a telemedicine company providing solutions and utilizing a cloud-based network that customers join.”
He added, “There are areas of concern as the vision is changing, reimbursement issues need to be addressed and changed, readmission rates need to be lowered, and how to effectively deal with different points of views on issues related to telemedicine.”
The panelists agreed that consumer telehealth or retail telemedicine is increasingly taking place in companies such as CVS and Walgreens. According to Tim Wright, “Health systems view retail health establishments as a threat, however, consumers are starting to demand this type of care which in the long term, will further incorporate the use telemedicine.