|
Today’s health care professionals are developing and using new concepts
in telecommunications-based health care delivery systems, or telehealth.This
new area of health care delivery is enhancing the way practitioner s’ access needed specialty care and
consultation. Telemedicine is enhancing health care dramatically, from
delivering care to the patient to providing access to health care not
previously available to many of our nation’s geographically isolated
population groups.
Many of our health programs have
entered into the world of telemedicine from the grass roots level.
Initially, many telemedicine activities were limited to providers who were
technically ‘savvy’ and willing to venture into new, uncharted health care
delivery modalities. Today, with more user friendly systems now being
installed to assist the provider in accessing his more specialized
counterparts (radiologists, dermatologists, psychiatrists,
ophthalmologists, and others), today’s general practitioners are becoming
more aware of and interested in new tools to link his/her practice to
specialists at a geographic distance through newly developed
telecommunications equipment. Many practitioners are finding themselves
purchasing, installing, utilizing, and improving their care delivery,
pioneering their own programs yet they are unaware of existing
telemedicine activities.
The
Department in 1998 recognized that many practitioners who were interested
in telehealth and telemedicine had no idea what other practitioners were
doing to reduce patient isolation from specialty medical care (diabetes
management, specialty eye care, heart and circulation care, wound care,
post surgery care, etc). DHHS indicated
that many programs using telemedicine to address these needs were proliferating
in isolation of other programs without even themselves knowing what was
or was not working. Consequently,
DHHS conducted a survey and inventory known as the Federal Telemedicine
Directory (1998).With the prices
of telecommunications and medical technology dropping significantly, as
well as the maturation of the world wide web, we are seeing in Indian Country
health programs installing and benefiting from telemedicine. However, there
is no coordinated effort to bring programs together to share ‘lessons learned’
with other existing or new programs to understand what is being installed
and their effectiveness in addressing geographic isolation and enhancing
health delivery effectiveness.
The
IHS has thus become a clearinghouse for dispensing and sharing information
about telemedicine related activities in Indian country. Telemedicine is
diminishing geographic and economic barriers and providing real value to
Native Americans and Alaskan Natives.
Previous
- Home - Next
|
Home 
