week 15 final paper on pshych
Chinenye Udenna Regis College 04/16/2021 2 Telemedicine On January 1, 2021, Massachusetts’s governor, Charlie Baker, signed into law, new legislation on telehealth and telemedicine. The new law expanded the scope of health practitioners applying telemedicine in providing healthcare. As defined in the law, telemedicine is the application of synchronous or asynchronous audio, video, electronic media, or other telecommunications technology for patient evaluation, diagnosis, consultation, prescribing, treatment, or monitoring of physical health, oral health, mental health, or substance use disorders. The expansion of telemedicine services in Massachusetts aimed at ensuring continuity of healthcare provision over the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the Act aims at overcoming barriers to telehealth services among healthcare providers and patients. This new law followed the June 25, 2020, medical Boards’ policy on telehealth that scrapped the requirement of initial contact between a healthcare specialist and patient before initiation of telemedicine services. In ensuring coverage among insurance patients the Act made provisions that insurers should provide coverage for services delivered through telehealth (Massachusetts Medical Society, 2020) . In the application of asynchronous telecommunication, patient data is collected, stored, and forwarded for review by a healthcare practitioner at a distant location. This method is commonly referred to as store and forward. Medical imaging services such as MRI and CT Scans often apply this method, herein; images captured are forwarded to a radiologist for reporting. Synchronous or interactive audio and video telecommunication allow instant communication between a patient and a healthcare specialist. This method encourages the exchange of information in real-time allowing the provision of services such as diagnosis, counseling, and monitoring of the patient’s condition. Medical streaming devices allow real-time exchange of 3 information between healthcare workers and patients (Foley & Lardner, 2021) . Remote patient monitoring uses digital tools for the collection of patient health data and electronic transmission of the data to healthcare providers at a distant location for evaluation and intervention. This method encourages self-monitoring among patients and better management of chronic illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and end-stage renal disease. In Boston, most healthcare facilities recommend the use of telemedicine among patients who need consistent follow-up care. This is cost-effective for hospitals and patients as it saves time and resources. Teledermatology is also a common telemedicine service, which patients with dermatological conditions utilize, through sending images of their skin conditions for dermatological review. The use of Telemedicine until recent years was limited to physicians and medical practitioners. The diversification of the nursing practice to advanced forms has added potential to the application of telemedicine in nursing. Among advanced nurse practitioners, telemedicine provides cost-effective means and improves access to health services among clients (Kotsani et al., 2018) . With the rising number of patients with chronic diseases requiring consistent management, telenursing will expand sporadically in the next few years. The field of telenursing also provides a solution to the existing shortages in the profession since it saves on time spent on distant travels to patients in remote areas. The application of telepsychiatry promotes access to healthcare among patients living in areas with low coverage of psychiatry care. This tool offers a wide array of services such as consultations with psychiatrists, evaluation and diagnosis, medical management therapy, follow- up sessions, and patient education programs. The utilization of video conferencing in telepsychiatry over the years has been successful in conducting cognitive behavioral therapy, supportive therapy, and group therapy among patients with depression and anxiety disorders. 4 Telepsychiatry has also demonstrated success in a psychiatric emergency, through crisis intervention programs such as online counseling, communication via emails, or messaging with people with suicide ideation. A study conducted among 274 patients receiving clinical consultations from the TeleMental Health program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health showed that most patients were satisfied with the telepsychiatry services, sighting high effectiveness, safety, appropriateness, and accessibility (Serhal et al., 2020) . Consistent with this finding is that telepsychiatry has increased remote access to psychiatry care among patients. 5 References Foley, & Lardner. (2021, January 19). New Massachusetts Telehealth Law Signed: Top 3 Changes. The National Law Review. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new- massachusetts-telehealth-law-signed-top-3-changes Kotsani, K., Antonopoulou, V., Kountouri, A., Grammatiki, M., Rapti, E., Karras, S., Trakatelli, C., Tsaklis, P., Kazakos, K., & Kotsa, K. (2018). The role of telenursing in the management of Diabetes Type 1: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 80, 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.01.003 Massachusetts Medical Society. (2020). Telehealth FAQs. http://www.massmed.org/Patient- Care/COVID-19/Telehealth-FAQ/ Serhal, E., Kirvan, A., Sanches, M., & Crawford, A. (2020). Client Satisfaction and Experience With Telepsychiatry: Development and Validation of a Survey Using Clinical Quality Domains. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), e19198. https://doi.org/10.2196/19198
