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The Cleveland Clinic is an American academic medical center in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established in 1921.

The Top 10 Medical Innovations is an annual list selected in October each year by a panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists.

Telehealth made the top ten list as #5 The Emergence of Distant Health.

https://innovations.clevelandclinic.org/Summit/Top-10-Medical-Innovations/Top-10-for-2018/5-The-Emergence-of-Distance-Health.aspx

Date Published:

Wednesday October 25th, 2017

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Telehealth was originally created as a way to treat patients who were located in remote places, far away from local health facilities or in areas of with shortages of medical professionals. While telehealth is being used today on a small scale, it’s increasingly becoming an avenue for convenient medical care. Today’s connected patient wants to waste less time in the waiting room, and get immediate care for minor but urgent conditions when they need it. The U.S. population has experience using online videochat applications and access to a computer or mobile device to use the telehealth technology for modern healthcare. Today the telehealth field is changing faster than ever before. As technology advances, so does the widespread affordability and accessibility to basic telehealth tools.

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After doing some research for our current medical innovation assignment , I chose to showcase the growing Telehealth technology.

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Enjoy this brief video for a quick overview how telehealth works.

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The Emergence of Distance Health: Top 10 Medical Innovations 2018

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We are living in the age of technology. With over 80% of Americans using smartphones and doctors using tablets, the mobile revolution has helped make adopting telehealth a much less costly and technologically complex endeavor than it was ten years ago (Henderson et al., 2013). Many modern telehealth solutions simply require a computer or smartphone and an internet connection to do a virtual visit with a patient (Henderson et al., 2013).

1. Telehealth Can Expand Healthcare Facilty Patient Base.

With telehealth, a patient can get convenient healthcare from the comfort of his or her own home. This allows many patients to access specialists or practices they wouldn’t normally be able to see for treatment (Bashsur et al., 2014).

Physicians can take advantage of this by expanding their patient base and strengthening relationships with existing patients (Henderson et al., 2013). Telehealth allows physicians to connect with patients outside of their geographic region, which is especially effective for physicians who provide Primary Care, specialist referral services, remote patient monitoring, consumer medical and health info, and medical education (Henderson et al., 2013).

2. Telehealth is Cost-Efficient.

Telemedicine can offer a less expensive alternative to in-office visits, for both patients and providers (Henderson et al., 2013).

Saving patients the time of sitting in the waiting room and commuting to the doctor’s office can be a huge benefit for them, especially if they have a chronic condition that requires frequent appointments (Bashshur et al., 2014).

Telehealth can allow physicians to perform follow-up visits or check in on chronic patients with a smaller time commitment than an in-office visit (Henderson et al., 2013). Offering virtual visits can also help physicians reduce no-show and late appointment rates, helping streamline their appointment schedule (Henderson et al., 2013).

3. Engage Patients and Get Better Patient Outcomes.

Being able to check in on a patient remotely allows physicians to reinforce treatment adherence– which can be a crucial part of preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and maintaining patient health (Bashshur et al., 2014).

If a patient has questions about a medication or thinks they need to change their treatment plan, a telehealth solution allows them to quickly and conveniently check in with their doctor for guidance (Bashshur et al., 2014). This helps improve adherence, ultimately leads to better patient outcomes (Bashshur et al., 2014).

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While many are optimistic about the potential of telehealth, others in the industry still have some concerns. Modern telehealth technology has come a long way, but it’s not fool proof. The speed that telehealth technology is developing, there’s still a need for clear, streamlined policies and standards around telehealth practice to enable easier implementation for healthcare facilities and their patient population.

1. Regulatory and Industry Barriers.

Telehealth regulations vary from state-to-state, and can be hard to decipher (ATA, 2016). Some physicians may not want to take the time to research what is required to meet the telehealth guidelines in their state. Additionally, some telehealth tools fall in a grey area of security, and physicians may worry that patient privacy is not adequately protected (Doarne et al., 2014).

2. Physical Examination is Limited.

Until relatively recently, live video communications technology wasn’t advanced enough to allow for comprehensive medical care (Bashshur et al., 2014). Today, most patients and doctors have easy access to technology that allows high-quality video-conferencing, but for some doctors, a virtual appointment may not seem enough to diagnose or treat a patient (Bashshur et al., 2014).

3. Telehealth Equipment and Technology.

Telehealth facilitates many remote health services, including chronic patient monitoring, therapy appointments, and post-operative care (Bashshur et al., 2014). All these services run on software and hardware which can sometimes be costly – requiring training to use, hiring IT staff, and the purchase of servers or other ancillary equipment in addition to the software (Bashshur et al., 2014).

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As healthcare providers, we have witnessed a patient be diagnosed with a chronic condition. In the beginning, the patient has the difficulty of coping with their new diagnoses, and having to learn how this chronic disease will affect their life. Then having to stay on top of monthly appointments with their primary care doctor, specialists, lab work, and picking up prescriptions from the pharmacy can be overwhelming and time consuming (Bashshur et al., 2014).

Here in the United States our population is growing, aging, and becoming more prone to chronic conditions like diabetes, congestive heart failure, and COPD (Bashshur et al., 2014). This is creating a high demand on the healthcare system, yet there is a shortage of healthcare providers being educated, trained, and licensed to practice (Bashshur et al., 2014). Therefore, utilizing telehealth technology has the ability to enhance our healthcare resources to provide high-quality care to the highest number of people possible.

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American Telemedicine Association (ATA), 2016.
Available online: http://www.americantelemed.org/main/policy-page/state-policy-resource-center.

Bashshur RL, Shannon GW, Smith BR, Alverson DC, Antoniotti N, Barsan WG, Bashshur N, Brown EM, Coye MJ, Doarn CR, Ferguson S, Grigsby J, Krupinski EA, Kvedar JC, Linkous J, Merrell RC, Nesbitt T, Poropatich R, Rheuban KS, Sanders JH, Watson AR, Weinstein RS, Yellowlees P. The empirical foundations of telemedicine interventions for chronic disease management. Telemed J E Health. 2014 Sep;20(9):769–800. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2014.9981. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/24968105.

Doarn CR, Pruitt S, Jacobs J, Harris Y, Bott DM, Riley W, Lamer C, Oliver AL. Federal efforts to define and advance telehealth--a work in progress. Telemed J E Health. 2014 May;20(5):409–418. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2013.0336. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/24502793.

Henderson C, Knapp M, Fernández J, Beecham J, Hirani SP, Cartwright M, Rixon L, Beynon M, Rogers A, Bower P, Doll H, Fitzpatrick R, Steventon A, Bardsley M, Hendy J, Newman SP, Whole System Demonstrator evaluation team Cost effectiveness of telehealth for patients with long term conditions (Whole Systems Demonstrator telehealth questionnaire study): nested economic evaluation in a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2013;346:f1035. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=23520339

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The board has requested to form a TEAM to evaluate telehealth, prior to adopting this current innovation into our facility.

Upon identifying my five strengths as Strategic, Adaptability, Positivity, Empathy, and Developer, it was my aim to build upon these strengths and choose five key individuals with a unique strength to carry out a successful evaluation of the current innovation telehealth.

Allow me to introduce you to our Current Innovation Telehealth Evaluation Team:

Alice leads by example with a strong work ethic that will aide the team’s productivity and execution of our goal evaluating telehealth for the facility.

Andrew will compliment the team’s research evaluation with his ability of turning the thought process of evaluating the implementation of  telehealth into a plan of action.

David has the ability to identify risks and plan for the unexpected. As our team evaluates telehealth, it is important to anticipate obstacles and plan for the unexpected to make solid decisions.

Fernando will help the team stay focused by prioritizing  our evaluation goals for telehealth and following through by make the corrections needed to keep the team on track.

Pablo has the enthusiasm the team will need to help the group see the positive outlook when faced with obstacles to keep the team encouraged and excited about the evaluation of telehealth implementation for the facility.