287149
Telehealth as a critical tool for improving population and community health
Monday, November 4, 2013
: 4:30 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
Karen Rheuban, MD,
Office of Telemedicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Kathy Wibberly, PhD,
Center for Telehealth, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center and School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Rapid advances in telehealth technology and its adoption are making its applicability more salient to not only individual patient care, but to population and community health. A recent Institutes of Medicine report on the role of telehealth in an evolving health care environment emphasized the many ways in which we can harness telehealth technologies to expand the reach of scarce health resources and improve health outcomes. However, the adoption of telehealth and the diffusion of innovative technology into public health practice have been slow. During this session, participants will gain insight into how telehealth enables more effective systems of emergency/disaster preparedness and response; improves the management of chronic diseases; mitigates the impacts of provider shortages on access to care; increases the capacity of providers to delivery more timely care and health education; enhances the capacity of the public health workforce through training and education; and decreases disability and facilitates greater independence in the aging population. By the end of this session, participants will better understand how the effective use of telehealth allows us to transcend racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, organizational, geographic, cultural and linguistic barriers to care; thus making it a critical tool in the battle for eliminating health inequities and reduce health disparities.
Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Provision of health care to the public
Learning Objectives:
Describe at least three applications of telehealth for improving population and community health.
List three innovative technologies that can be used to reduce health disparities.
Discuss the purpose and function of the national network of Telehealth Resource Centers.
Keyword(s): Telehealth, Public Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Margaret is the Principal investigator of the NorthEast Telehealth Resource Center. In her career at MCD Public Health she has had responsibility for managing programs in a variety of content areas including oral health, chronic disease self-management and colorectal cancer screening. Margaret has a PhD in Biological Anthropology.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
