New applications of telemedicine dubbed “tele-home-care” also
may make an incalculable difference in the lives of homebound patients,
families with special-needs children, prison inmates, homeless persons,
and others living in special circumstances. A physician at the Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center envisions a future in which
telemedical services are available to “place-bound” patients
everywhere. “In a home-care situation,” he says, “a patient with
congestive heart failure or emphysema can follow up with a physician or
nurse to refine his or her care plan, keeping that patient out of the
costly revolving door of frequent hospital readmission.”
E-Health
Winner Sets the Pace
The
Pacific E-Health Innovation
Center at Tripler Army Medical Center
is a model for telemedicine providers across the nation, not just those
within the Federal or military sectors.
In fact, Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for
Reinventing Government (NPR) recently designated the Center as its
choice for the winner of the e-Gov
2000 Pioneer Award. NPR
praised the Center for its Pacific Medical Network (PACMEDNET) Project
and its development of “Best Practices” solutions to the challenge
of health services delivery.
The Center’s project
list is ambitious and includes a number of novel initiatives as well as
standard fare -- a Global Forensic Telemedicine (GiFT)
effort, for instance, that focuses on the identification and assessment
of child abuse victims by specialists in the field.
The Future
It’s clear that telemedicine
is an idea whose time has come. What is less clear is how potential users
can eliminate the remaining barriers to its use:
| Payment issues; |
| Privacy issues related to sending information over possibly unsecured lines; |
| Interstate licensing of doctors; |
| Uneven development and acquisition of technology; the varying costs imposed by telecommunications carriers; and |
| Increasing need for the broadband technology
medical systems needed to transport detailed images at rapid speed. |
For more information visit the Pacific E-Health Innovation Center
More information about Telemedicine.
6/19/00
