Telehealth has integrated itself as a major part in healthcare and has caught the attention of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai will be visiting Cleveland clinic to learn more about how the implementation of telehealth is advancing healthcare to those in need.

Long wait times and crowded emergency departments (ED) reduce quality of care. In the ED at Duke University Hospital, a telehealth cart rolls through the aisles to treat patients quickly and effectively. 

Elizabeth Morrison-Banks, MD, a health sciences clinical professor at the University of California, Riverside, has received a $100,000 grant from Genentech to conduct a study in hopes of developing a telehealth program for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Telehealth standards could change in Texas if the state’s legislature passes newly proposed legislation removing the requirement for physicians to meet patients in-person before offering services via telehealth or prescribing any drugs.

Reducing costs is one of the purported principal benefits of telehealth, but recent research questions just how much the remote services may save healthcare providers. A report in the March issue of Health Affairs explores the use of direct-to-consumer telehealth and related costs.

Using direct-to-consumer telehealth, where a patient was direct access to a physician on the phone or through videoconferencing, may be a tool to increase access to care. According to a study published in the March 2017 issue of Health Affairs, it also increases utilization and spending. 

Telehealth may be able to connect patients to physicians at the most urgent times—on the way to the emergency department (ED). A study published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare explored the effectiveness of using telehealth in pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) and the associated costs.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Reduce Limitations from Anxiety (RELAX) trial have found telehealth to be effective treating patients with panic and anxiety disorders.