Telemedicine Panel at CES Hosted by HealthSpot
I had the chance to attend a Telemedicine panel today at CES that was put together by HealthSpot (see my previous post about HealthSpot at CES). They put together a good panel that included:
Peter Tippett, MD, PHD – Vice President, Connected Healthcare Solutions, Verizon
John F. Jesser – Vice President, Health Care Management, WellPoint
William Wulf, M.D. — Central Ohio Primary Care
Leslie Kelly Hall — Healthwise
The panel was an interesting discussion, but I think the underlying discussion really centered around how screwed up many parts of healthcare are right now. This showed itself in two different ways. One was that telemedicine could possibly fix some of those screwed up parts of healthcare. Second, telemedicine is actually hard to execute because of some of the screwed up parts of healthcare. It’s kind of odd to look at it that way.
I tweeted a number of the comments that struck me and so I thought I’d share them here for those who weren’t following along on Twitter.
Healthcare has always been about safer and more affordable. The discussion was never convenience. #2013ces #hitsm
— EMR, EHR and HIT(@ehrandhit) January 9, 2013
This was a fitting comment at a “consumer” electronics show.
Consumer advocates use to be the wackos on the room. Now we’re not.#2013ces #hitsm #hcsm
— EMR, EHR and HIT(@ehrandhit) January 9, 2013
I think there are still some wackos;-), but I think the message they send is clear.
HIPAA is not to be afraid of. We need to embrace it and build the tools we need that also meet HIPAA. #2013ces
— EMR, EHR and HIT(@ehrandhit) January 9, 2013
This would be a monumental achievement if we can embrace HIPAA and make the technology happen. I think the key message is: HIPAA should not be used as an excuse.
We spent $49 million on ER visits and we know that 20% weren’t necessary. Could we replace that with telemedicine? #2013ces
— EMR, EHR and HIT(@ehrandhit) January 9, 2013
Such a no brainer question with an easy answer. Why is it so hard to do?
What will change telemedicine is when the lawsuits come against hospitals that don’t have Telemedicine. #2013ces
— EMR, EHR and HIT(@ehrandhit) January 9, 2013
Will telemedicine become the “standard of care” so that this becomes a big issue? I hope we don’t reach the point that this is the reason we implement telemedicine, but it might take something like it to get people off the proverbial couch.
“HIPAA is not to be afraid of.”
I preach this fact daily – the sooner a medical practice views HIPAA as a risk reduction process, the better. Oh…did I mention that most of HIPAA actually makes smart business sense?? I didn’t say all, I said most.
“We spent $49 million on ER visits and we know that 20% weren’t necessary. Could we replace that with telemedicine?”
This reminds me of a statement a doc friend of mine recently made. He said, if an ER was just allowed to have a triage area where they could redirect those who only need to see a general practitioner….
That 20% who use an ER and don’t need it probably aren’t going to use tele-medicine. How about we implement real change to the ER problem.
Great thoughts John. Thanks for adding to the conversation.