The panel of experts and an accompanying report lays out 10 benefits of expanding health information technology to improve the health of patients. But the first step would be to get broadband Internet service to more people.
Access to broadband varies depending on where you live in the United States. A report from the Department of Commerce in February said 70 percent of people in urban areas and 60 percent of those living in rural America have access to broadband service. However, inoted that 28 percent of Americans have no access to the Internet at all.
In 2009, President Obama made a commitment to provide high-speed Internet access to 98 percent of the United States, particularly in rural areas.
Michael Manley of the Center for Distance Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences said his facility developed a statewide telemedicine system to better provide care for rural patients. The center is currently developing a system for correctional facilities so tha tpatients can see doctors without having to be there face-to-face.
“One of our successful programs in Arkansas is managing high-risk [pregnant patients] where we have a shortage of health care workers,” Manley said during the teleconference. “Broadband – whether wireless or landline – is bringing health care back to the patient, a lot closer to where the patient is.”
Rural residents tend to be in poorer health, with limited access to primary-care physicians than people in urban areas, according to a report released earlier this week by the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization.
Health IT could help fill in the gaps for those who live a distance from a specialist or hospital, the experts said.
“Many rural patients don’t have access to stroke neurologists, but with wireless technology and telehealth, a patient could have a video conference with a doctor who might themselves be traveling,” said Karen Rheuban, a pediatric cardiologist, medical director of the University of Virginia Office of Telemedicine and the former president of the American Telemedicine Association.
Telehealth is not limited to conferencing with doctors in different cities and states; it also is useful in cutting down medical errors that occur in the pharmaceutical industry, according to the report.
“This is often used in a humorous way but it’s very serious – it can be pretty difficult sometimes to read a physicians' writing. E-prescribing takes that potential for medical error away,” said Jack Hutson, executive director of the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association.
According to the report, other benefits include making administrative work more efficient; providing guidance to paramedics; and helping seniors via in-home monitoring.
The Agriculture Department announced on Wednesday that rural telecommunication companies in eight states will receive $192 million in loans for projects to deliver broadband services to customers.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Althea Fung
Quelle/Source: National Journal, 28.07.2011
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