New Home Telehealth Primer Now Available on TIE

A new Home Telehealth Primer has recently been published on the TIE's article section. The Home Telehealth Primer provides an overview and introduction to the use of telecommunications technology to provide care services to a patient in their home. It includes information on technology, patient assessment, and Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement polices.

The Telemedicine Information Exchange welcomes submissions of original articles on topics appropriate for this website. Possible subjects might include commentary on telemedicine/telehealth issues or policy, reports of current research projects, or new applications of telemedicine/telehealth.

Contributors Sought for Handbook on Knowledge Management in Telemedicine

Writers working in telemedicine and knowledge management as researchers and practitioners are invited to submit book chapters for a handbook be published by IGI Global. The Handbook of Research on Knowledge Management in Telemedicine: Advanced Ethics, Policy and Regulatory Applications will cover a wide range of topics from early adopters of Telemedicine to the latest innovation and futuristic tele-robotic technologies.

The Overall Objectives of the Book:

The book aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and latest empirical research findings in the area. It is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of the global significance of Telemedicine and apply it in their profession. Since Telemedicine is expected to provide a strategic thrust at different levels of the global information and knowledge society and bridge the knowledge gaps in developing nations, the book addresses the all important ethics, policy and regulatory applications in a detailed and comprehensive fashion.

The Target Audience is professionals and researchers working in the field of information and knowledge management in various disciplines, e.g. library, information and communication sciences, administrative sciences and management, education, adult education, sociology, computer science, information technology. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support decision-makers at local, regional, national and international levels to implement Telemedicine initiatives in their country to advance quality of healthcare, medical education and research and elevate the overall health and well-being of society and communities.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

* History And Evolution Of Telemedicine
* Internet, Semantic Web And Telemedicine
* Telecommunications And Telemedicine
* Information Technology And Telemedicine
* Devices, Equipments, Instruments And Accessories And Telemedicine

Medical Applications of Telemedicine:

* Global Ethics And Telemedicine
* Local, National And International Policies In Telemedicine
* Total Quality Management In Telemedicine
* University- Industry Alliance In Telemedicine
* Tele-Robotics- Theory And Applications
* Biomedical Ontology: Theory And Applications
* Data mining Applications For Telemedicine
* Decision Support Systems For Telemedicine

Submission Procedure:

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit chapters by August 5, 2008 and will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. The book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global, www.igi-pub.com, publisher of the IGI Publishing (formerly Idea Group Publishing), Information Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing and Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference) imprints.

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to:

Dr. Jayanth G Paraki
Telemedicine Research Laboratory, India
jparaki @ gmail.com

Or Dr. Lawrence Wasserman USA
Health Knowledge Management Consultant
Fortech1 @ usa.net

(Source: IGI Global Press Release)

Forthcoming Report Says Home Telehealth Market Is $5.6 Billion and Expected to Grow by 70%

The home telehealth and remote patient monitoring market is currently close to a $5.6 billion level and will continue to grow at close to 70% for at least the next three to five years, according to a new strategic report published by Insight and Intelligence, a Mary Ann Liebert company. Insight and Intelligence interviewed industry leaders, conducted surveys, utilized government and other agency databases, as well as reviews of published literature to provide an in-depth look at the home telehealth and remote patient monitoring market segment of the telemedicine industry.

The healthcare provider market segment (companies that provide telemedicine services to health care providers) is represented by a number of small to medium-sized companies with average annual revenue of approximately $6.6 million. These companies' combined average revenue growth, however, is significant, approaching 72%. Consumer companies (defined as companies that provide services directly to the consumer) tend to be larger with combined average annual revenue of approximately $121.3 million. Their combined annual revenue growth is even more explosive than that of healthcare provider companies, with a combined average range of 118.5% to 193.5%.

The full report will be available in late June from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

(Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Press Release, May 22, 2008)

New Economic Analysis of Email-Based Telemedicine Available

Email-based telemedicine has been reported to be an efficient method of delivering online health services to patients at a distance and is often described as a low-cost form of telemedicine. A new study by researchers at the Center for Online Health at the University of Queensland, Australia, finds that the service may be low-cost if the healthcare organization utilizes their existing email infrastructure to provide their telemedicine service. When the workload exceeded 5216 email consultations per annum, there were savings made when a purpose-written email application was used.

The full analysis was published by the open access journal BioMed Central and the full report is available for free download [pdf].

(Source: BioMed Central, May 22, 2008)

International Telemedicine Nonprofit Organization to Treat 30,000 Child

The Medical Missions for Children charity (MMC) recently announced that will treat its 30,000th child via telehealth in June. The organization has created what it calls the Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network to enable U.S.-based doctors to consult with foreign pediatric physicians through a distance-medicine network called the Telemedicine Outreach Program so they can help diagnose and treat children worldwide. Technology also has allowed MMC to expand its services to include educational content for health care providers and patients in multiple countries.

Read more here.

Implementation of Home Telemonitoring for Chronic Disease: New Article on the TIE

A new article on a case study for implementing a home telehealth program has recently been published on the TIE's article section. The article summarizes a study to query the sequence of medical professionals, hospital liaisons, quality controls, and home health nurses about the implementation of telemonitoring. It looks at what barriers stood in the way of a telemonitor protocol from becoming the standard of practice, and what changes where deemed necessary to implement this technology.

The Telemedicine Information Exchange welcomes submissions of original articles on topics appropriate for this website. Possible subjects might include commentary on telemedicine/telehealth issues or policy, reports of current research projects, or new applications of telemedicine/telehealth.

Telehealth Community Asked to Urge Congress to pass the Medicare Telehealth Improvement Act, S. 2812

The telehealth community is asked to urge Congress to pass the Medicare Telehealth Improvement Act, S. 2812. This federal telehealth legislation was introduced on April 3 by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and is currently co-sponsored by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Thune (R-SD).

S. 2812 would expand the existing Medicare telehealth program in several important ways.

First, the bill would increase the list of eligible originating sites to include skilled nursing facilities, dialysis centers and community mental health centers. In addition to improving care in these facilities, there are significant cost savings achieved by avoiding transporting medically fragile patients.

Second, S. 2812 would expand the list of authorized providers in the Medicare telehealth program to include physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists and diabetes educators.

Finally, S. 2812 would improve the process of reviewing services to determine if they are appropriate for Medicare telehealth reimbursement by creating an advisory committee of practicing telehealth providers. Medicare would retain the final decision making authority, but they would have the benefit of the advice of actual telehealth providers.

Please contact your 2 U.S. Senators and urge them to co-sponsor S. 2812.