Krupinski Elizabeth A
Department of Medical Imaging, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2015 Oct;26(9):761-7. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.14047.
Health care is being fundamentally changed by telemedicine. Telemedicine uses communication technologies in prevention, disease management, home health care, long-term (chronic) care, emergency medicine, and many other applications including audiology. Telemedicine is being adopted and integrated into the health care enterprise at an exponential rate and it is often difficult to keep up with all of these changes. Other key drivers such as the Affordable Care Act and other federal health care initiatives are pushing the adoption of telemedicine and catalyzing a flood of interest in telemedicine, telehealth, and m-Health.
This paper provides an overview of telehealth models and will describe methodologies as they pertain to clinical practice. The goal is to provide the principles behind the practice of telemedicine and how they can be applied to teleaudiology programs. There is a very large body of evidence supporting the benefits and utility of telehealth in terms of technology, economic value, and impact on patients. However, there are still barriers to acceptance, so we must address these challenges and involve all relevant stakeholders if telehealth is to become an integral part of the health care system. Clinical guidelines for telemedicine developed by experts who are practicing it on a daily basis is one way to help overcome these barriers, so attention will be devoted to a discussion of current guidelines.
Telemedicine is not a unique clinical specialty, but rather uses telecommunication technologies to reach out to patients to reduce barriers to care in underserved areas, improve patient care and accessibility to specialists, decrease professional isolation in rural areas, help medical practitioners expand their practice reach, and save patients from having to travel or be transported to receive high quality care.
远程医疗正在从根本上改变医疗保健。远程医疗在预防、疾病管理、家庭医疗保健、长期（慢性）护理、急诊医学以及包括听力学在内的许多其他应用中使用通信技术。远程医疗正以指数级速度被医疗保健企业采用并融入其中，往往很难跟上所有这些变化。其他关键驱动因素，如《平价医疗法案》和其他联邦医疗保健倡议，正在推动远程医疗的采用，并引发了对远程医疗、远程健康和移动健康的大量关注。
本文概述了远程健康模式，并将描述与临床实践相关的方法。目标是提供远程医疗实践背后的原则以及它们如何应用于远程听力学项目。有大量证据支持远程健康在技术、经济价值和对患者的影响方面的益处和实用性。然而，仍然存在接受障碍，因此如果远程健康要成为医疗保健系统的一个组成部分，我们必须应对这些挑战并让所有相关利益攸关方参与进来。由每天从事远程医疗实践的专家制定的远程医疗临床指南是帮助克服这些障碍的一种方法，因此将致力于讨论当前的指南。
远程医疗不是一个独特的临床专业，而是利用电信技术联系患者，以减少服务不足地区的护理障碍，改善患者护理和获得专科医生的机会，减少农村地区的职业孤立，帮助执业医生扩大其执业范围，并使患者无需长途跋涉或被运送就能获得高质量护理。
