Healthcare IT News: Facilitated Telehealth Improves Access to Care

In May, journalist Bill Siwicki talked to Dr. Rahul Sharma, emergency physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center about recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association that finds significant association between the use of telehealth services and improved healthcare access and outcomes in communities negatively impacted by health disparities.

Sharma is a co-author of that JAMIA report – along with colleagues Dr. Brock Daniels, Christina McGinnis, Leah Shafran Topaz, Dr. Peter Greenwald, Meghan Reading Turchioe, RN, and Ruth Marie Masterson Creber, RN. It describes the value of a facilitated, mobile device-integrated telehealth program that combines in-home paramedic visits with video consults with emergency physicians.

In the interview, Dr. Sharma discussed the differences in telehealth needs, conditions and behaviors between communities facing few health disparities versus those facing significant ones, as well as the correlation between socioeconomic demands and higher burden of chronic disease and how increased telehealth services can address and minimize this gap. 

For the full article, please visit Healthcare IT News.