Georgia is often considered the HIT Capital of the US . In early November, TAG hosted an HIT Leadership Summit in which over 600 attendees from across the nation attended. As expected, there were many HIT topics, but key among them was telemedicine and consumer digital health. Although Georgia is an historic poor performer in many health performance metrics, it is one of the nation’s leaders in telemedicine for three key reasons: a large rural population that lacks many specialty care services, the existence of a state-wide and HIPAA secure broad band network, and GA Medicaid pays for telehealth visits.
Telemedicine brings scarce medical resources, in many specialties, to patients where they need it, when they need it . This way to provide care can save lives, reduce costs, and save time. New blue tooth technology and high resolution camera’s enable telemedicine units to be custom configured by specialty with peripherals to enhance the exam portion of the audio/video consultation. Imagine a medical assistant placing a stethoscope on a patient’s chest six hrs away at a “presenting site” and the physician hearing the heart beating in real time at the “host station”! Imagine a mini-camera with a light during a telemedicine throat exam- with the image blown up on a large telemedicine screen. The image is better than what a physician could see with the naked eye in a face to face exam!
One provider can manage multiple sites and be a community resource virtually. Patients are able to be triaged and managed without traveling to a large tertiary care center hours away. One GE Healthcare executive at the recent HIT Summit predicted that telemedicine will have the next largest impact on healthcare and that in the near future, consumers will demand telehealth services accessed often through Smartphones and mobile healthcare apps. Virtualization, digitization, consumerism and connectivity are driving the direction of HIT. The HIT industry, telemedicine and patients appear poised to benefit.
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