Telehealth Field: A Case Study

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• There are many barriers in telehealth field. Some states do not allow its physicians to practice outside of the state without getting license from those states first. Reimbursement is also a big factor in this field as many insurers will not reimburse. According to Gustke et al (2000, as stated by Brown (2005)) fear of malpractice suites is another consideration for physicians, as is acceptance of the technology and lack of hands on interaction with patients, although most patient satisfaction studies to date find patients on the whole satisfied with long distance care.Lack of telecommunications technology is also a big problem in this field. As normal phone line can not supply high bandwidth and there are many rural areas where they do not have high speed cabling and can not get high bandwidth telecommunication for telehealth.Getting federal funds from the state is also a problem for telehealth projects. …show more content…
Data security is also a big concern in telehealth. As personal data is being transferred from patient to health provider, there is possibility of loss of data or could criminal access that should be considered and prevented. (Wootton, Patil, Scott and Ho, 2009). Bandwidth is also an issue, especially when high quality images need to transfer from patient to health care provider and getting the technical support needed to make sure telehealth networks are up and running around the clock is a major challenge for rural programs or those in small hospitals and practices. (Brian,