Taming the Wild Telehealth Frontier

These innovative technologies, particularly telehealth and asynchronous communications platforms, offer a better and more efficient path for improving outcomes and lowering costs while meeting consumer demand for access and convenience.

Mobile health (mHealth), a new and evolving modality, leverages mobile devices such as smartphones and software apps to support healthcare, including asynchronous messaging and texting.

Telehealth options that include secure, simple text and multimedia messaging and social media drive organizational efficiencies by reducing call volume and streamlining workflows.

Most telehealth programs have operated as pilots or separate programs rather than as part of a larger, integrated system. In order to achieve EHR integration with telehealth platforms, hospitals and health systems need interoperability – the ability to exchange patient data between software systems and beyond their own four walls.