Telehealth

Patient satisfaction was high even before the pandemic, and anesthesiologists say 50% of visits could be virtual.

This week's top stories include a Universal Health Services cyberattack forcing the shutdown of user access to IT applications and Anthem reaching a $39.5 million settlement in a 2015 attack.

In total, hundreds were charged in $6 billion fraud takedown related to telehealth and substance abuse treatment facilities.

At Ohio-based Harbor, telemedicine services are up 564% compared with 2019. From March to August this year, the provider treated 15,259 patients via remote consult with help from its Lighthouse Telehealth subsidiary.

In the debut episode of Telehealth Connection TV, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden shares why it's important to safeguard telehealth and what he hopes to see in the future from digital health innovators.

Darine Ghanem, global head of personalized healthcare and patient access, global medical affairs, at Roche, discusses the need for digitalization of care across the patient journey and how her company is supporting the sector using digital technology.

Piotr Orzechowski, CEO at Infermedica, says the increased adoption of technology such as telemedicine has helped open up innovation opportunities.

The American Telemedicine Association's comments focused on expanding telehealth access, changes to remote monitoring services, and the provision of telehealth in federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics.  

Too much media exposure can be overwhelming and lead to more stress, worry and perceived risks, authors say.

Dr. Pam Hoffman, medical director of telehealth services at Yale New Haven Health Services and Yale Medicine, says telehealth became a service that required a "clinical champion" to a necessary part of the health system's offerings.