Polycom issued a press release around findings with Saint Vincent’s Health System in Pennsylvania, and aside from the attention-grabbing “100% ROI within two months” on a bariatric wellness program based on video — proof of which Editor Donna strained to find in the release — there is a sound story of video telemedicine being used inventively to connect rural hospitals with urban hospitalists, a telestroke program that connects Saint Vincent’s with neurologists at a ‘renowned nonprofit medical center’ for analysis of CT scans, and integrating both telehealth and video into tele-oncology and cardiology. Polycom release (with a headline way too long to recap here)
Pennsylvania is also expanding coverage of telehealth and telemedicine beyond specialist consults within in its state Medicaid program. Announced last week, the new regulations will:;
- Establish the use of real-time interactive technology, such as audio and video equipment as a method of delivering consultation services;
- Consultations can now occur between all physician specialists like cardiologists, obstetricians or neurologists
- Remove the requirement that telemedicine consultations can only be performed with participation from the referring physician