New report available, recapping insights from leaders and experts on three key areas for telehealth: Measurement, access, and policy
In 2020, the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM) organized a virtual roundtable for health care leaders to discuss pressing issues related to telehealth. With 12 months of perspective, many of those same leaders reconvened in October 2021 to continue their discussion on the future of this important digital health technology.
The “Top of Mind Exchange: Telehealth” virtual roundtable gave telehealth technology, clinical, policy, digital strategy leaders an opportunity to raise needs, share progress, and partake in a candid discussion on the issues facing telemedicine.
Building on key takeaways from the October 2020 virtual roundtable, the 2021 meeting focused on the future of telehealth through the themes of access, measurement, and policy.
Learn more about the participants and themes below.
Participants in “Top of Mind Exchange: Telehealth”
Saima Aftab, Vice President, Organizational Initiatives, Nicklaus Children’s Health System
Rob Bart, Chief Medical Information Officer, UPMC
Ceci Connolly, President and CEO, Alliance of Community Health Plans
Alexis Gilroy, Partner, Jones Day
Joe Kvedar, Senior Advisor, Virtual Care, Mass General Brigham, Chair of the Board, American Telemedicine Association (ATA), Editor-in-Chief, npj Digital Medicine, Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School
Eric Liston, Intermountain Connect Services Administrator, Intermountain
Amy Meister, Chief Medical Health and Wellness Officer, UPMC Health Plan
Peggy O’Kane, Founder and President, National Committee for Quality Assurance
Sara Vaezy, Chief of Digital and Growth Strategy, Providence
Andrew Watson, UPMC, Department of Surgery, UPMC Enterprises, Insurance Services
Jaime Zimmerman, Senior Program Advisor, AHRQ Telehealth Co-Lead, Office of the Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Discussion themes for “Top of Mind Exchange: Telehealth”
In October 2020, roundtable participants highlighted three next steps and points of importance from their discussion.
- Substantiate the clinical value of telehealth by studying and publishing on clinical outcomes in telemedicine and/or integrated models that blend in-person with virtual care.
- Make permanent a telehealth-conducive regulatory environment that includes adequate reimbursement and streamlines/reconsiders geography-based regulation to make compliance more straightforward.
- Work with executive leadership and finance and accounting colleagues to get backing for telehealth investment with long-term strategy in mind, even if subsidizing
This year’s roundtable broaches learnings and progress in telehealth over the past twelve months and focuses on the future of telehealth through the following lenses:
- Policy
- How has the regulatory environment for telehealth changed over the past year?
- What factors related to telehealth are most influential with policymakers and regulators?
- Access
- How are organizations addressing care discrepancies that have arisen with the use of virtual care technology?
- What are the roles of various stakeholders in improving access for divergent populations?
- Measurement
- What have we learned about health outcomes and cost of telemedicine use over the past year?
- How are organizations contributing to the understanding of the impact of telehealth?
Additional CCM resources on telehealth
New Report: Telehealth utilization settles in at 20% or less of medical appointments
Telehealth panel at Top of Mind Online tackles empathy in virtual care and range of other topics
Report: What’s needed to sustain telehealth, and measure and identify its value
Telehealth industry is poised to be the major disruptor in health care
