Cargando…
Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity
When the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a disruption in health care delivery, the role of telehealth shifted from an option to a near necessity to maintain access when in-person care was deemed too risky. Each state and many organizations developed temporary telehealth policies for the COVID-19 emergency...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047847/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35416778 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35037 |
_version_ | 1784695812184342528 |
---|---|
author | Roy, Joy Levy, Deborah R Senathirajah, Yalini |
author_facet | Roy, Joy Levy, Deborah R Senathirajah, Yalini |
author_sort | Roy, Joy |
collection | PubMed |
description | When the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a disruption in health care delivery, the role of telehealth shifted from an option to a near necessity to maintain access when in-person care was deemed too risky. Each state and many organizations developed temporary telehealth policies for the COVID-19 emergency, each policy with its own definitions, coverage, government cases, and regulations. As pandemic-era policies are now being replaced with more permanent guidelines, we are presented with an opportunity to reevaluate how telehealth is integrated into routine health care delivery. We believe that the timing and nature of the sequential steps for redefining telehealth are critical and that it is important to develop a clear and agreed-on definition of telehealth and its components at this time. We further suggest a necessary preliminary step is to support clear communication and interoperability throughout the development of this definition. Precise and standardized definitions could create an unambiguous environment for clinical care for both patients and providers while enabling researchers to have more precise control over their investigations of telehealth. A consensus when defining telehealth and its derivatives at this critical stage could create a consistent expectation of care for all patients and those who set the standards of care, as it has for other clinical scenarios with clear guidelines. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9047847 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90478472022-04-29 Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity Roy, Joy Levy, Deborah R Senathirajah, Yalini J Med Internet Res Viewpoint When the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a disruption in health care delivery, the role of telehealth shifted from an option to a near necessity to maintain access when in-person care was deemed too risky. Each state and many organizations developed temporary telehealth policies for the COVID-19 emergency, each policy with its own definitions, coverage, government cases, and regulations. As pandemic-era policies are now being replaced with more permanent guidelines, we are presented with an opportunity to reevaluate how telehealth is integrated into routine health care delivery. We believe that the timing and nature of the sequential steps for redefining telehealth are critical and that it is important to develop a clear and agreed-on definition of telehealth and its components at this time. We further suggest a necessary preliminary step is to support clear communication and interoperability throughout the development of this definition. Precise and standardized definitions could create an unambiguous environment for clinical care for both patients and providers while enabling researchers to have more precise control over their investigations of telehealth. A consensus when defining telehealth and its derivatives at this critical stage could create a consistent expectation of care for all patients and those who set the standards of care, as it has for other clinical scenarios with clear guidelines. JMIR Publications 2022-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9047847/ /pubmed/35416778 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35037 Text en ©Joy Roy, Deborah R Levy, Yalini Senathirajah. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 13.04.2022. 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 https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Viewpoint Roy, Joy Levy, Deborah R Senathirajah, Yalini Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title | Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title_full | Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title_fullStr | Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title_full_unstemmed | Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title_short | Defining Telehealth for Research, Implementation, and Equity |
title_sort | defining telehealth for research, implementation, and equity |
topic | Viewpoint |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047847/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35416778 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35037 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT royjoy definingtelehealthforresearchimplementationandequity AT levydeborahr definingtelehealthforresearchimplementationandequity AT senathirajahyalini definingtelehealthforresearchimplementationandequity |