“Information is the lifeblood of medicine. Ask any doctor or nurse. They’ll tell you that clinicians are only as good as the information they have about their patients. A doctor, nurse or hospital can’t provide great care without good information, anymore than an anemic Olympian is likely to win gold. (Blumenthal, 2012)
The recent Supreme Court Ruling that upholds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will positively impact the adoption of telemedicine/telehealth because it will reduce the amount of uncertainty health care providers had about investing in IT applications; protect the investments made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); allow physicians the ability to manage patient care by performing medication reviews and certify home care services electronically; and allow health care providers to meet the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) accountability requirements for certified electronic health records (CEHR) and meaningful use.
According to Blumenthal (2012) “Building the EHR of the future is a core component of Partners’ strategy for maintaining excellence in clinical care, teaching and research, as it will be for every health care organization in Massachusetts and the US. And in HIT, we will continue to innovate and lead so we can deliver the best care possible to our patients and their families. ” Accelerometers and wireless scales such as e-readers, smartphones, tablets, and Bluetooth devices many bodies of networks are already quantifying data to be used in a clinical setting and will continue to impact the way medicine is practiced.
As these types of devices are improved so will the possibilities effects of telemedicine on health care. With the introduction of higher resolution sensitive centric digital devices physicians and emergency room staff will be able to more effectively scan patients during routine examinations and immediately transmit images for consult interpretations. Virtual social media such as Facetime and Skype will lessen outpatient visits the need for ER patients to be hospitalized for lab tests, etc. , will be diminished significantly. People who live in the remotest areas will gain access to the type of health care that they never would have had access to previously.