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Advances in Telemedicine and Patient Care Technology in North America (Technical Insights)
Frost & Sullivan, March 2005
Telemedicine Solution Developers Encouraged by an Ageing Population and Shortage of Care Providers
The ageing population, especially in the remote areas of the United States is one of the primary drivers of growth of telemedicine systems because of its inability to travel long distances regularly. This trend is complemented by the availability of fewer physicians and nurses to attend to a patient. However, technological advancements in telemedicine, aptly named, ‘Unified Collaborative Communications’, allow audio and video communication along with a web access and data/image transfer in a stand-alone monitoring system. There are several other applications such as e-prescribing and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) that are making life easier for doctors, allowing them to utilize most of their time in providing better patient care rather than spending it on writing prescriptions. As for patients, they can sidestep the hassles of endless visits to and long waiting hours at the clinic or a hospital, especially if they belong to the elderly population segment.
This Technical Insights study, Advances in Telemedicine and Patient Care Technology in North America, examines innovative technologies that are fast making their way toward commercialization. The research service defines key markets and applications and reports on technology drivers as well as obstacles in the way of commercial success.
Lack of Clarity on Reimbursement and Licensure Policies Restricts Widespread Implementation of Telemedicine
Despite the increasing prominence of the telemedicine industry, there are still no clear federal policies on reimbursement and licensure. Due to the lack of national licensure for physicians, they have to go through a new abbreviated licensure procedure drawn up by the Federation of State Medical Boards to treat a patient from a state other than the one that licensed his/her medical practice. Meanwhile, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing has developed a mutual recognition model for nurse licensure that allows nurses to practice in other states also as long as they acknowledge that they are subject to that state's laws.
Medicare and Medicaid are the two key bodies that deal with telemedicine reimbursement but they have left many aspects of telehealth uncovered since state legislatures have their own definitions for what constitutes telemedicine. Third-party insurers are also reluctant to reimburse physicians, compelling vendors to fund technological developments internally. These pose a big challenge to the growth of telemedicine and create a huge financial burden on the patient, physician, and technology developers, says the analyst of the research.
Security and Privacy of Patient Data is of Paramount Importance
Telemedicine technology has to be fully insured against security risks so that patients can be assured that the information they send out is being transmitted only to the people they want it to go to. Although there are not many safeguards on the transmission of patient data, companies are working toward providing solutions that encrypt the data before it is sent out over public networks such as the Internet to ensure that there are no hacker interceptions. This move will also simultaneously comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.
With hospital environments becoming increasingly paperless, there is an urgent need to secure wireless networks. Fortress Technologies, Inc.’s AirFortress (AF) secure client has met the U.S. Government's rigorous standards of cryptographic security and is being used as a lightweight software client module for laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, and thin clients. Fortress’ security solutions protect patient data from any kind of hacker interceptions using Layer 2 encryption and its unique Three-Factor Authentication approach, which verifies access at the network, device, and user levels to guarantee a patient’s privacy, notes the analyst.
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