Telpsych – MB response
Response needs to be 1 page to the response below.
Telehealth is defined as the delivery and facilitation of health and health-related services including medical care, provider and patient education, health information services, and self-care via telecommunications and digital communication technologies. Live video conferencing, mobile health apps, “store and forward” electronic transmission, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are examples of technologies used in telehealth (Jiang et al, 2022) .Telepsychiatry on the other hand, is a process that uses a telecommunications device to provide psychiatric services to people who are separated from a psychiatrist by a distance and those who feel more comfortable at home. Telepsychiatry may offer several benefits, including convenience and better accessibility (Malhotra et al, 2013).
How can we best scale telecare to specific populations?
Telecare can be scaled to specific populations by considering their specific healthcare needs. Poulations stratification tools can be used to identify patients at highest risk before telecare can eb deployed. It can be used tto stratify patient groups and assign certain groups to telehealth visits based on risk, such as comorbidities, disease severity, age, and socioeconomic factors. For example, a population health team might assign the lowest risk patients to telehealth visits because providers don’t need to see these specific patients in person as often. Or, a population health team might assign the highest risk patients to receive frequent in-person visits with telehealth visits in between to keep the care team up to date. Telehealth solutions allow health teams to increase patient surveillance without the costly burdens (and infection risk during COVID-19) of delivering care in person.
How will it change the way we gather and analyze health care data?
Telehealth will change the way we gather data by accelerating and automating such a process. For instance, remote health monitoring involves the use of smart devices to provide real-time data on vital patient measurements such as blood pressure and heart rate. This system of monitoring can help keep high-risk individuals out of the hospital, and allow doctors, patients, and caregivers to track the patient’s overall health.
