Telehealth: Opportunities and Challenges
Telehealth involves the use of technology to deliver health care information and services when there is a geographic separation between the patient and the provider of care. Through its numerous applications, telehealth draws on a broad range of technologies-from cell phones to the Internet to videoconferencing-to connect providers to their patients in increasingly innovative ways.
To prepare for this Application Assignment, review this week's Resources and consider the detailed perspectives on telehealth applications that were provided in this week's video.
To complete this Application Assignment, write a 2- to 3-page paper that describes three specific applications of telehealth and the technologies associated with each of these applications. Then, detail at least three challenges or barriers to the overall growth and practice of telehealth and evaluate how these challenges are affecting (or have the potential to affect) the applications of telehealth that you chose to describe.
Reading materials:
Video: Laureate Education (Producer). (2009). Introduction to health informatics: Telehealth and public health[Video file].
Course Text: Handbook of Informatics for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals
Chapter 5, "Professional Use of Electronic Resources
Chapter 25, "Telehealth"
Article: Yasnoff, W. A., O'Carroll, P. W., Koo, D., Linkins, R. W., & Kilbourne, E. M. (2000). Public health informatics: Improving and transforming public health in the information age. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 6(6), 67-75.
Article: Gater, L. (2005). Enhancing patient care with telehealth. PT: Magazine of Physical Therapy, 13(6), 64-68.
Article: Boodley, C. (2006). Primary care telehealth practice. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 18(8), 343-345.