Study: Telehealth can improve outcomes, but issues remain

A new study from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality has released a report on the results of some telehealth grant projects aimed at low-income rural areas with high rates of chronic illnesses, and the verdict seems to be mixed. 

On the one hand, some of the projects seem to have achieved improvements in health outcomes, but it seems that providers and researchers will have to do more to demonstrate the value of telemedicine projects and propose uniform reimbursement standards before payers begin to accept telemedicine as a standard method of care. Meanwhile, patients also faced some technical challenges with telemedical equipment, including unreliable home monitoring equipment and poor video resolution. In fact, some patients had such bad technical problems that they stopped using the equipment involved.

To keep telemedical projects online, and ensure patient safety, grantees said that they needed to use round-the-clock technical support. This was a strain, because since the grantees were generally small groups without major IT departments, they had to work with outside vendors whose services weren't as integrated as an inside IT department might have been.

To learn more about this study:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece

Related Articles:
Despite benefits, telemedicine barriers remain high
TX Wal-Marts offer telemedicine clinics
Study: Telemedicine could save $4.2 billion annually
USDA offers $128M for rural telemedicine