Although it may seem like a new technology, telemedicine—or the delivery of a healthcare service or information using telecommunications—has been an innovation in motion for decades. In fact, it has been disrupting the way patients experience care for more than 40 years and is increasingly being integrated throughout today’s healthcare delivery systems.
While telemedicine might seem like a recent innovation, it has actually been disrupting the way patients experience care for several decades.
Telemedicine was born more than 40 years ago through demonstrations of hospitals extending care to patients in remote areas, according to the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). Since then, telemedicine, or the delivery of a healthcare service or of wellness information using telecommunications technology, has become integrated throughout the healthcare delivery system. Examples of telemedicine include videoconferencing, remote monitoring of vital signs and nurse call centers.
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As technology zoomed ahead, there were growing calls from patients who wanted greater access to their healthcare providers, said Tammy Richmond, chair of the ATA’s Telerehabilitation Special Interest Group and CEO of Go2Care, a telerehabilitation company. Richmond’s clients would Facetime her from CVS, for instance, when they wanted her opinion on what brace they should buy.
“Consumers wanted to have access,” she said. “They wanted to have access to me at these key moments they were making decisions about their health.”
Also blatantly disruptive for telemedicine’s growth were America’s wars in the Middle East (the trade show at the 2009 ATA conference was packed with military vendors) and the Affordable Care Act. Its three key provisions—to improve access, increase affordability, and deliver better patient care—were a big push for wellness that opened the door to new opportunities in telemedicine.
“All of us stakeholders and participants and healthcare providers and agencies that were involved in having to comply with Obamacare,” Richmond said, “we were all defining it.”
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“The exam room is better if it’s where the patient lives, not where the doctor works,” said Dr. Jay Sanders, the founder of the ATA and the so-called Father of Telemedicine, in a March interview with MedCity News.
In the last decade, telemedicine has exploded thanks to rapid technological advancements, from Skype and FitBit to mobile apps and secure text messaging. “The technology has changed so fast,” said Dr. Jim Hutchinson, chair of the ATA’s Home Telehealth and Remote Monitoring Special Interest Group. “To me, these are all digital tools that we need to figure out how to best use in the care of our patients.”
Where is telemedicine headed? Technological innovations coming out of organizations like the Department of Defense and companies like Apple can hint at the future of telemedicine, Richmond said. With advancements in virtual reality technology and 3D printing, she said, it might not be long before a telerehabilitation client can pop on simulator glasses or take a spin in custom crutches.
“Personalized medicine is where we’re going to see ourselves go between now and 2020,” Richmond said.
