Telehealth is not just about technology – it’s about
people, processes and relationships.
Successful
telehealth initiatives all have one thing in common. They have committed
the necessary time and resources to address not only the technical
solution but also the process redesign and change management necessary
to encourage more widespread adoption of telehealth. Unless telehealth
programs develop their skill and expertise in these areas, they
will run the risk of limited user acceptance and poor network utilization.
With the relatively high cost of implementation and operations,
low utilization threatens the sustainability of any telehealth program.
Now
that telehealth has been more widely deployed across Canada and
many programs have successfully secured sustainable funding, our
next big challenge will be the integration of telehealth into mainstream
practice. I envision telehealth being available on every physician’s
desktop, throughout every hospital, and in every community – access
wherever and whenever healthcare services are delivered. This is
a realistic vision technically speaking as the cost and complexity
of telehealth equipment declines and connectivity begins to reach
even our most remote and isolated communities. However, people and
process could remain the limiting factor and only careful attention
to change management and process redesign will help us overcome
this challenge. Our focus at MBTelehealth is building user acceptance
and confidence, as well as simplifying the telehealth process so
that this technology can be easily integrated into the healthcare
workplace. Only then can we effectively move telehealth from innovation
to standard of care.
