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Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents

Telemedicine refers to the delivery of medical care and provision of general health services from a distance. Telemedicine has been practiced for decades with increasing evidence proving its potential for enhanced quality of care for patients, reduction in hospital readmissions, and increase in savi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hyder, Maryam A, Razzak, Junaid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690251/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33215999
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/20839
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author Hyder, Maryam A
Razzak, Junaid
author_facet Hyder, Maryam A
Razzak, Junaid
author_sort Hyder, Maryam A
collection PubMed
description Telemedicine refers to the delivery of medical care and provision of general health services from a distance. Telemedicine has been practiced for decades with increasing evidence proving its potential for enhanced quality of care for patients, reduction in hospital readmissions, and increase in savings for both patients and providers. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in the reliance on telemedicine and telehealth for provision of health care services. Developments in telemedicine should be structured as complements to current health care procedures, not with the goal of completely digitizing the entire health care system, but rather to use the power of technology to enhance areas that may not be working at their full potential. At the same time, it is also clear that further research is needed on the effectiveness of telemedicine in terms of both financial and patient benefits. We discuss the current and rapidly increasing knowledge about the use of telemedicine in the United States, and identify the gaps in knowledge and opportunities for further research. Beginning with telemedicine’s origins in the United States to its widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we highlight recent developments in legislation, accessibility, and acceptance of telemedicine.
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spelling pubmed-76902512020-11-27 Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents Hyder, Maryam A Razzak, Junaid J Med Internet Res Viewpoint Telemedicine refers to the delivery of medical care and provision of general health services from a distance. Telemedicine has been practiced for decades with increasing evidence proving its potential for enhanced quality of care for patients, reduction in hospital readmissions, and increase in savings for both patients and providers. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in the reliance on telemedicine and telehealth for provision of health care services. Developments in telemedicine should be structured as complements to current health care procedures, not with the goal of completely digitizing the entire health care system, but rather to use the power of technology to enhance areas that may not be working at their full potential. At the same time, it is also clear that further research is needed on the effectiveness of telemedicine in terms of both financial and patient benefits. We discuss the current and rapidly increasing knowledge about the use of telemedicine in the United States, and identify the gaps in knowledge and opportunities for further research. Beginning with telemedicine’s origins in the United States to its widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we highlight recent developments in legislation, accessibility, and acceptance of telemedicine. JMIR Publications 2020-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7690251/ /pubmed/33215999 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/20839 Text en ©Maryam A Hyder, Junaid Razzak. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 24.11.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Viewpoint
Hyder, Maryam A
Razzak, Junaid
Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title_full Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title_fullStr Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title_full_unstemmed Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title_short Telemedicine in the United States: An Introduction for Students and Residents
title_sort telemedicine in the united states: an introduction for students and residents
topic Viewpoint
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690251/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33215999
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/20839
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