Can State medical boards legally prevent telehealth activity?

April 1, 2015 | by

This is the question that arises out of a recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court, not on anything related to telehealth but on teeth whitening!

The case was between the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners and the Federal Trade Commission. The Board had requested non-dentist teeth whitening practitioners to desist from carrying out these activities and was challenged on the grounds that the Board did not have authority to do so and was acting in an anti-competitive way. The challenge went all the way to the Supreme Court which upheld the lower court decision on the grounds that even though the Board is, in fact, an agency of the State its action must still be supervised by the State in order to enjoy anti-trust immunity. This is analysed by Eric M Fraser in the SCOTUS blog.

It is thought that the State Medical Boards in the United States also have similar rules of governance and therefore do not qualify for immunity from anti-trust law that some State agencies have. This has led to speculation that any restrictions imposed by a State Medical Board on a licensed medical practitioner with regard to the use of telehealth could be considered an anti-competitive action. (more…)

EHRs: now safety, info exchange concerns (US, AU, CA)

April 1, 2015 | by

What’s this? EHRs reducing, not increasing, safety? Reports from both the US and Australia seem to indicate another spanner (US: wrench) in the EHR works, aside from the laggardness in achieving the HITECH Act’s goals [TTA 27 Mar].

  • The Joint Commission, which is the chief US accreditation and certification body for healthcare organizations and programs, and thus to be taken very VERY seriously, released a Sentinel Event (Patient Safety Event) Alert yesterday. It warned of EHR-related adverse events affecting patient health, resulting from incorrect or miscommunicated information entered into EHRs. Interfaces built into the technology can contribute and studies have documented mixed results in the systems’ ability to detect and prevent errors. It identifies eight key factors,led by human-computer interface, workflow and communication and clinical content, that can lead to a sentinel event and three major remedy actions. While the JC does take pains to confirm the positive effects of well-designed and appropriately used EHRs, with strong clinical processes in place, it is the first ‘red flag’ this Editor can recall (more…)

Chronic care management with telehealth (US)

March 25, 2015 | by

Our readers, especially those in the US engaged with medical practices, might be interested in reading a two-part interview with Editor Donna by occasional TTA contributor Sarianne Gruber. We discuss the new model for Chronic Care Management (CCM) now included in what the Federal Government (CMS-Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) pays physicians for Medicare patient visits and services. Telehealth, or in CMS terms remote monitoring, can play a vital role in the provision of care coordination, assessment, documentation, patient access and facilitation of self-management as part of the care plan, culminating in better outcomes at lower cost. Published in the new RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) Answers, a spinoff of HITECH Answers. Part 1.  Part 2

National telehealth plan to improve rural health called for in Australia

March 25, 2015 | by

Ahead of the forthcoming Australian Telehealth Conference 2015, one of the speakers has spoken to the media partner of the conference, Australian Aging Agenda Technology Review. In an article published on the Aging Agenda website, the speaker, Dr Shannon Nott, is quoted as saying “There needs to be a telehealth plan put in place in Australia. We need to start looking at telehealth and say this is something we should seriously invest in. We need to look at it and get it right from the start; that includes getting it right for indigenous communities [and] getting it right for rural and remote communities”.

Nott is said to have spent four months last year researching telehealth in rural and remote Alaska, Canada and Brazil including indigenous communities. The article quotes him as saying “In Alaska for every dollar that they spend on telehealth software and programs they save $10.50 in travel alone in terms of healthcare costs. Not to mention the hospital admissions avoided, the GP admissions avoided.”

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ATC2015.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The Australian Telehealth Conference 2015 takes place on the 23rd and 24th of April in Sydney.

W Australia telehealth scheduling contract awarded to Telstra

March 24, 2015 | by

Telstra Health has won a contract to provide its iScheduler product to the Western Australia Country Health [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/WA-CHS.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]Service’s Statewide Telehealth Service, worth $3.2m over five years, according to an article in Pulse+IT. iScheduler will be used to support the scheduling and management of emergency telehealth services, patient telehealth consultations and education and training for doctors, specialists, nurses and other staff according to the article.

The Western Australia Country Health Service is the largest country health service in Australia and one of the biggest in the world, providing health services to approximately half a million people, over a vast 2.5 million square kilometres area. The range of health services provided cover primary health care, emergency and hospital services, population health, mental health, Indigenous health and aged care.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has, in October last year, previously criticised a new telehealth service launched by Telstra that was to connect patients to random GPs via phone and video, saying it could undermine the viability of rural general practice (see Australian Rural Doctor).
Telstra launched its ReadyCare service in October, announcing it would offer patients around the clock advice, diagnosis, referrals and prescriptions from doctors either over the phone or through video link.
The communications giant had claimed the service will deliver better healthcare to rural and remote Australians who live a long way from their doctor.
But the RDAA and the AMA disagreed.

Scotland invests £30M over 3 years on telehealth (UK)

March 19, 2015 | by

In a news release this morning (19 March 2015) the Scottish Government said it is to allocate [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/scotland-gov-logo1.gif” thumb_width=”150″ /]£200m over two years to support the implementation of health and social care integration.

According to the release the investment will extend the current Integrated Care Fund into 2016/17 and 2017/18, and comes on top of £100 million of funding already allocated for 2015/16. The money will be distributed among the 32 local NHS and social care partnerships that have been set up as part of the move towards integrated services.

The Integrated Care Fund forms part of over half a billion pounds of Government investment over the next three years that will be used to support integration, including £100 million over three years for delayed discharge, and £30 million over three years for Telehealth.

The Integrated Care Fund supports the implementation of plans to  bring together health and local authority care services by 1 April 2016.  This will give the partnerships the resources to focus on preventative care and early intervention as well as support for people with multiple and long-term conditions. (more…)

A mélange of short subjects for Tuesday

March 17, 2015 | by

ATA accredits American Well, Apple ResearchKit, diabetic contact lenses, Hackermania Falls on Indiana, patent trolls get a haircut, and more

The ATA (American Telemedicine Association) has gained more than 200 applications for their US-only Accreditation Program for Online Patient Consultations [TTA 17 Dec 14]. First past the post in accreditation is American Well’s Amwell virtual visit app, which will shortly be listed on the ATA consumer website SafeOnlineHealth.org. Release, MedCityNews….Stanford University, one of the five academic centers using the Apple ResearchKit, had a mind-boggling 11,000 signups for a heart health study–in 24 hours. The downside is that they may not be representative of the whole population [TTA 10 Mar, see 11 Mar update] including us Android users. 9to5Mac….The Google-Novartis glucose-measuring contact lens [TTA 17 July 14] for diabetes management just gained some Canadian competition–Medella Health in Kitchener, Ontario, founded by a team of (more…)

University of Mississippi telehealth center to expand (US)

March 16, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ummc_aerial.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]A Baton Rouge, La.-based data company set its sights on Jackson, Mississippi, and announced on Tuesday (10 March 2015) it will build a technology center that, in part, will house one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s fastest growing services – telehealth, according to a news release from UMMC. UMMC entered into a lease agreement with Venyu Solutions, LLC, which will construct a stand-alone, 16,000-square-foot facility to accommodate the increase in the services UMMC’s Center for Telehealth provides to hospitals, clinics, corporations and patients across the state.

Venyu CEO Scott Thompson is quoted to have said construction would start in April or May and take a little less than a year. The hospital’s lease will begin on or around July 1, 2016. (more…)

State telemedicine legislation update (US)

March 12, 2015 | by

Here’s some brief updates on US telemedicine legislation scene to hit the news recently.

Florida

Florida is progressing the telehealth bill we reported on 12 Feb 2015. The Florida Senate [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Florida-House-of-Representattives.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Telehealth Policy Committee revised the draft bill on 18 Feb 2015 so the need for Medicaid reimbursements to be the same for telemedicine and face-to-face consultations is removed.

Mississippi

We have reported many telehealth initiatives from Mississippi and the state is now considered to be “a leader in telemedicine” according to a recent report in Politico. “Mississippi’s telemedicine program, ranked among the seven best in the country, has inspired neighboring Arkansas to take bigger steps in some areas of the field, and the impact of its success is making waves in Washington as well” continues Politico.

Mississippi is also helping to move telehealth at a federal level. Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced a bipartisan bill in July last year to expand telehealth services under Medicare. The bill called Medicare [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mississippi-logo1.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Telehealth Parity Act 2014 starts to move face to face and telehealth consultations to be on an equal footing.

(more…)

New alliance for m-health in Europe

March 7, 2015 | by

Swedish telecommunications company Tele2, with operations in nine European countries, has announced that it is to partner with HCL Technologies to develop Machine to Machine (M2M) [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Tele2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, particularly those within the m-health [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HCL.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]market. In an announcement on their website, HCL Technologies, which employs over 100,000 people worldwide, said “by focusing on the Healthcare segment in Europe, the two companies will jointly address one of the fastest growing areas of the M2M/IoT market. For example, in healthcare the two companies are planning to develop remote patient monitoring systems that are enabled through smartphones. HCL and Tele2 will work together in an effort to reduce transactional and operational costs for their partners, whilst tapping into the lucrative revenue opportunities that exist within the European IoT/M2M market.”

The news article continues “HCL will be responsible for the implementation, integration, roll-out and ongoing support of M2M/IoT solutions, in addition to device connectivity through its flagship Device Gateway product – Aegis. This becomes feasible through Tele2’s Control Center, which is the market leading M2M/IoT connectivity platform in the world.”

Smartphone health data, privacy concerns rear head at MWC

March 5, 2015 | by

As Editor Charles is chronicling at the world’s largest mobile event, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has a great deal of focus on healthcare–and that includes healthcare data security. Both telehealth monitoring and telemedicine virtual consults are increasingly phone-based. That data transmitting via and in virtual storage a/k/a The Cloud, including personal health records (PHRs), is overly assumed to be secure, but security protocols vary. “We are at the mercy of who the app providers are and how well they secure the information, and they are at the mercy sometimes of the cloud providers.” according to Kevin Curran of the IEEE. This article also points out that there’s real consumer concern that insurance companies will access their personal identified data via various databases, (more…)

66% of ‘tech-savvy seniors’ dissatisfied with current health tech

March 5, 2015 | by

Yes, those same people who–gee whiz–designed computers, did their own programs in MS-DOS and went from Palm Pilots to BlackBerries to iPhones, are already over or hitting 65 (3.9 million in US in 2015)–and they aren’t happy with what’s being served up to them in healthcare tech. The Accenture study across 10 countries and over 10,000 adults points out the demand–67 percent–and the dissatisfaction–66 percent. They want independent self-care tools, wearables to monitor themselves, online communities like PatientsLikeMe, patient navigators and health record tools. Moreover, the more comfortable they are with and value technology, the more likely they are already using technology for tracking weight and cholesterol levels. Couple this with the ‘Drawn and Quartered’ Parks Associates research [TTA 11 Aug 14] and moving past the mHealth hype earlier this week, the study points out a strong market for apps, online tools and other digital health–but designed not for a peer group of most designers, nor to be ‘cool’. Helloooo designers! Wake up! Laurie Orlov does point out on AgeInPlaceTech that there’s not much new here, but that we shouldn’t move on. Accenture release, Modern Healthcare, Fred Pennic in HIT Consultant, Stephanie Baum in MedCityNews

Veterans Affairs boosts telehealth, HIT in proposed 2016/2017 budgets

March 5, 2015 | by

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), in its proposed 2016 budget released earlier this week, is increasing support for telehealth/mHealth along with programs that use these services–rural health and mental health. Telehealth’s VA budget from FY 2014 increased from $986 million to just below $1.1 billion in the current year. In FY 2016 (beginning 1 Oct), the VA is allocating $1.22 billion of a $56 billion budget, and in 2017 advance appropriations, $1.37 billion–a year-to-year increase of 11 percent and 12 percent respectively .

VA has the largest telehealth program in the US, divided into three main functional areas: (more…)

American Telemedicine Association (ATA) 2015

February 23, 2015 | by

2-5 May 2015, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California 

ATA’s annual meeting for 2015 connects like-minded telemedicine, telehealth, mHealth professionals and entrepreneurs from around the globe. With over 6,000 attendees, 13 educational tracks and the largest telemedicine trade show in the world, the ATA meeting is a premier forum to learn and network, featuring:

For more information and to register, see our special link here. Telehealth & Telecare Aware is pleased to be again an official media partner of this year’s ATA. 

AstraZeneca awards over $200k for heart failure telehealth

February 19, 2015 | by

AstraZeneca Healthcare Foundation, the charitable arm of the UK based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, has awarded $205,564 to HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Illinois to support their Tele-Heart Pathway programme. [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/HSHS.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The programme provides interventions to heart failure patients in their homes to support health management. With telemedicine and telehealth technology doctors monitor symptoms and help avoid complications at home after surgery, according to the hospital.

 “We have seen a rapid evolution in the last few years of new devices and new ways of communicating with our patients,” said Mark Stampehl, MD and Medical Director of the heart failure programme at Prairie Heart Institute (PHI) at St. John’s Hospital, in an article entitled Telemedicine elevates care for heart patients published in the fall 2014 issue of the hospital’s quarterly magazine Healthy You. “Today, we are using tools to remotely monitor a patient’s condition and increase communication with other physicians to give patients access to specialty care from home.” (more…)

Tech, approaches for caregiving at a distance falling behind

February 17, 2015 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/8001846820_6d2df50ffa_z.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]There’s plenty of telehealth systems and apps that remind older adults of their meds, appointments and take their vital signs–but where are the ones that take care of the reality of ‘aging in place’: the loneliness of the man or woman who lives alone, how that person can communicate with family with their own lives 50 or 2,000 miles away, how family members can better oversee or coordinate her care? The problem hasn’t changed when first addressed over a decade ago by the earliest telecare systems. The technology, while more abundant, is largely uncoordinated, putting the burden on the caregiver. Laurie Orlov points out that ‘finding care is not the problem’ but that the care is at extremes: either too light (daily non-medical assistance) or a move to assisted living housing (average move-in now 80+). No company has truly organized a larger solution (more…)