CHICAGO — As the Covid-19 epidemic rages on across the U.S. and social distancing rules become standard practice, patients are losing face-to-face contact with their physicians. The solution? Telemedicine, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).
To help facilitate these real-time video check-ups, the AMA added guidance for conducting telemedicine visits to its Digital Health Implementation Playbook Series.
“For medical practices and health systems looking to integrate telemedicine as quickly as possible during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Playbook series not only offers a clear and efficient path to scaled implementation, but also access to institutional knowledge and best practices curated from experts in the field,” said AMA Chair Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, in a statement. “The AMA is committed to making technology an asset, not a time-consuming burden, and the Playbook’s roadmap offers a proven course to telemedicine implementation when physicians need it most.”
This new addition to the Playbook series — which already contained an implementation guide for remote patient monitoring — provides a 12-step roadmap to help kick off a new telemedicine program, including steps that the AMA considers “fundamental to the planning of a telehealth program—identifying a need, forming a team, defining success, evaluating vendors, making the case, and contracting.” The program also deals with issues such as designing workflow, partnering with patients, and how to evaluate and scale the program once it’s up-and-running.
The AMA’s Digital Health Implementation Playbook on telemedicine is available for download here.
“The AMA strongly encourages the adoption of telemedicine to support physical (social) distancing measures and help ensure the availability of care to those who need it,” the AMA wrote.
John McKenna, Production Editor, BreakingMED™
Cat ID: 125
Topic ID: 79,125,730,933,125,190,469,520,926,192,927,151,928
