The Implementation toolkit for accessible telehealth services provides practical guidance to support governments, industry partners, health service providers and civil society groups in the use and implementation of the WHO-ITU Global standard for accessibility of telehealth services. The toolkit is the result of a collaboration between the World Health Organization and the International Telecommunication Union, and was developed in response to the growing challenges that persons with disabilities and other marginalized populations experience when accessing and using telehealth platforms around the world.

In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.

Telemedicineâ€"the use of information and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participantsâ€"is receiving increasing attention not only in remote areas where health care access is troublesome but also in urban and suburban locations. Yet the benefits and costs of this blend of medicine and digital technologies must be better demonstrated before today's cautious decision-makers invest significant funds in its development. Telemedicine presents a framework for evaluating patient care applications of telemedicine. The book identifies managerial, technical, policy, legal, and human factors that must be taken into account in evaluating a telemedicine program. The committee reviews previous efforts to establish evaluation frameworks and reports on results from several completed studies of image transmission, consulting from remote locations, and other telemedicine programs. The committee also examines basic elements of an evaluation and considers relevant issues of quality, accessibility, and cost of health care. Telemedicine will be of immediate interest to anyone with interest in the clinical application of telemedicine.

The need to promote academic activities in telehealth remains a high priority as the discipline expands into new areas of healthcare. Response during 2020 to the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an excellent example of the rapid diversification and impact attainable with telehealth, and may kindle a new momentum for accelerated service design and adoption processes in the future. This book, Telehealth Innovations in Remote Healthcare Services Delivery, is the tenth in the Global Telehealth series. Due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions placed on academic gatherings, the organizers issued a general call for contributions, with the intention of attracting a wide cross-section of contributions reflecting the breadth of different aspects of telehealth internationally. The resulting collection offers snapshots of research projects and studies of service experience from five continents, with an emphasis on delivering benefits in regional settings in keeping with the theme of the book’s title. Articles range from descriptions of telehealth networks and clinical-service instances such as cardiac health, mental health and pathology, several in Pacific-rim settings, to more generic papers on the evolution of such services, as well as commentaries on innovative considerations for telehealth such as the emergence of the concept of virtual care, the suitability of health apps, and the status of eHealth readiness in the developing world. This book is a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge on current telehealth research interests and trends, and will be of interest to all those working in the field.

"Teleneurology" refers to the use of telecommunications techniques such as the telephone, Internet, email, and videoconferencing to improve the delivery of neurology services. Containing 15 contributions from international clinicians, this volume provides an introduction to telemedicine as it is practiced in neurology today. It is divided into three sections: techniques, applications, and practical issues. Technical information has been kept to a minimum, as the emphasis is on the utility of each technique, rather than the technology itself. The editors are affiliated with the Center for Online Health at the U. of Queensland in Australia. Annotation :2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This book provides an overview of key issues with regards to implementing telemedicine services as well as an in depth overview of telemedicine in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Topics range from specific practices to program development. Telemedicine has experienced explosive growth in recent years and yet, implementing telemedicine solutions is complex with substantial regulatory, legal, financial, logistical, and intra-organization/intra-personal barriers that must be overcome. This book provides the necessary information and guidance to address those complex issues. This book is broadly divided into two parts 1) a primer on requisite steps before embarking on telemedicine service development and 2) specific applications and examples where telemedicine is successfully utilized to improve quality of care in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The first part includes coverage of telemedicine and finance, regulatory and legal issues, and program development. The second part delves into specifics with information on ambulatory telemedicine programs, inpatient consultations, and tele-ICU programs. All chapters are written by interprofessional authors that are leaders in the field of telemedicine with extensive knowledge of diverse telemedicine programs and robust real-world experience on the topic. This is an ideal guide for telehealth program managers, and pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine professionals interested in improving their telehealth practice.