TTA Archives 2005-2012

The trend for hospitals to use telemedicine via video conferences may be reaching a tipping point here in the US.  From being used to connect rural clinics and hospitals for complex and highly specialized diagnoses, today’s Wall Street Journal  explores its ‘snap’ use in regional and local hospitals connecting to specialists in urban medical centers for emergency and trauma cases.  Even though many insurers won’t pay for these consultations except in certain circumstances, these networks are growing and linking hospitals even in Latin America;  major companies (United Health and Cisco Systems, see previous article) and states like Colorado and Texas are joining in.