Becker's Hospital Review

13 CIO / HEALTH IT The Growth of Telehealth: 20 Things to Know By Jessica Kim Cohen A lthough telehealth has been gaining traction in recent years, there is no set definition. A particular source of confusion is whether the terms telehealth and telemedicine refer to the same service — the American Telemedicine Association, for example, "large- ly views telemedicine and telehealth to be interchangeable terms." However, other organizations disagree. e U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration defines telehealth as a "broader scope of re- mote healthcare services than telemedicine," according to HealthIT.gov, including non-clinical services like provider training, administrative meetings and medical education. Telemedicine, on the other hand, only refers to remote clinical services. Regardless of definition, many patients aren't familiar with the terminolo- gy. Almost half of healthcare consumers, 47.7 percent, said they were not familiar with the term telemedicine, according to an Alo Group report, even though 51.4 percent reported having received an email or text mes- sage from a physician or clinician. Here's what you need to know about this rapidly developing healthcare trend. Adoption 1. e top three most popular telemedicine platforms are telephone (59 percent), email (41 percent) and text message (29 percent), according to a survey by Rock Health. e digital health venture fund surveyed more than 4,000 healthcare consumers across the United States. 2. Video-based telemedicine adoption is experiencing rapid growth, in- creasing from 7 percent in 2015 to 22 percent in 2016, according to the Rock Health survey. Video-based telemedicine is also the platform with the highest satisfaction rate (83 percent), although all platforms had sat- isfaction rates above 75 percent. 3. Telemedicine usage is most common amongst those between 25 and 34 years of age; those above 55 years of age are least likely to use tele- medicine, according to the Rock Health survey. at being said, more than half of those 55 years of age or older have accessed remote physi- cian care through a phone call. 4. An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-commissioned report conducted by the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center found the most consistently reported telehealth benefit is using the technology for remote communication or counseling between physicians and patients with chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. 5. Recent research has supported integrating telemedicine into a vari- ety of medical specialties. A study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that telemedicine is a "viable alternative modality for providing evidence-based psychotherapy for elderly patients with depression."

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