Telehealth Department, Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado;
Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado.
Pediatrics. 2018 Mar;141(3). doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-2334.
The growth and evolution of telehealth are opening new avenues for efficient, effective, and affordable pediatric health care services in the United States and around the world. However, there remain several barriers to the integration of telehealth into current practice. Establishing the necessary technical, administrative, and operational infrastructure can be challenging, and there is a relative lack of rigorous research data to demonstrate that telehealth is indeed delivering on its promise. That being said, a knowledge of the current state of pediatric telehealth can overcome many of these barriers, and programs are beginning to collaborate through a new pediatric telehealth research network called Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth (SPROUT). In this report, we provide an update on the landscape of pediatric telehealth and summarize the findings of a recent SPROUT study in which researchers assessed pediatric telehealth programs across the United States. There were >50 programs representing 30 states that provided data on their implementation barriers, staffing resources, operational processes, technology, and funding sources to establish a base understanding of pediatric telehealth infrastructure on a national level. Moving forward, the database created from the SPROUT study will also serve as a foundation on which multicenter studies will be developed and facilitated in an ongoing effort to firmly establish the value of telehealth in pediatric health care.
远程医疗的发展为美国乃至全球提供高效、有效和负担得起的儿科医疗保健服务开辟了新途径。然而，远程医疗融入现有实践仍存在一些障碍。建立必要的技术、行政和运营基础设施可能具有挑战性，而且缺乏严格的研究数据来证明远程医疗确实如其承诺的那样有效。话虽如此，了解远程医疗的现状可以克服许多这些障碍，并且项目开始通过一个名为“支持儿科远程医疗研究网络”（SPROUT）的新儿科远程医疗研究网络进行合作。在本报告中，我们提供了儿科远程医疗领域的最新情况，并总结了 SPROUT 最近一项研究的结果，该研究评估了美国各地的儿科远程医疗计划。有超过 50 个计划代表 30 个州，提供了有关其实施障碍、人员配备资源、运营流程、技术和资金来源的数据，以便在国家层面上建立对儿科远程医疗基础设施的基本了解。展望未来，SPROUT 研究创建的数据库也将成为基础，在此基础上将开展多中心研究，以努力在儿科医疗保健中牢固确立远程医疗的价值。
