Page 17 - Delaware Medical Journal - July 2017
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Navigating Technology Vendor Selection in the World of Telehealth/Telemedicine
Patt Ellen Panzer, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Are you considering integrating some form of telehealth
or telemedicine into your practice? If so, an important initial question to answer is why. Is there a need that
you are trying to address for your patients and your practice
that telehealth may be able to solve (eg. patient access, distance, expansion of hours, reducing hospital admission/ER visit rates, improving chronic care management)? Once you have answered that you would like to explore, what might be some next steps
in preparing for and navigating the many vendors that would be happy to have your business. First, some background and basics about telehealth and telemedicine:
What is Telehealth?
telehealth, the following is from the Center for Connected Health Policy:1
“Telehealth is a collection of means or methods for enhancing health care, public health, and health education delivery and support using telecommunication technologies”
telehealth as “the use of information and communication technologies consisting of telephones, remote patient monitoring
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TELEHEALTH