Children's group sees promise in school-based telehealth services

While the American Telemedicine Association is testing telemedicine as an employee benefit, California researchers and some members of Congress see remote care at public schools as a great way to reach children in medically underserved areas.

A recent report from the Children's Partnership, a nonpartisan advocacy group, says that teleconferences with school children in San Francisco resulted in "significant improvement" in the health of students with asthma, and recommends wider use of the technology. "We're really at a unique juncture of technology beginning to offer new ways to deliver healthcare to more children and governments--federal, state and local--looking seriously at new ways to fund that care," the report's author, Jenny Kattlove, tells iHealthBeat. "Our goal with this report on California is to shed light on how wise use of health IT can transform the lives of children--a lot of children."

Advocates are optimistic because lawmakers in Washington just happen to be considering health reform legislation that would fund school-based healthcare delivery, perhaps for the first time. Plus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act already has authorized $7.2 billion to support deployment of broadband technologies, including for telemedicine and education. Kattlove says her group will be lobbying for some of that money to go toward school-based telehealth.

For more information:
- check out this iHealthBeat feature
- read this Children's Partnership issue brief (.pdf)

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