Health IT Infrastructure Integration Key to Telehealth Adoption

Integration of the health IT infrastructure will be one key to widespread adoption of telehealth technology, according to a recent report by American Well. Health systems should move to an integrated workflow experience combining telehealth technology and electronic health records (EHR), the report advised. “Physicians must be able to seamlessly document in the EHR while launching and delivering video visits. Telehealth-EHR embedding or integration can also help health systems combat physician burnout by making telehealth a convenience instead of a nuisance,” the report observed. The report also contained the results of a survey of 800 U.S. physicians by M3 Global Research on behalf of American Well. The survey found that 22 percent of respondents currently use telehealth. More than half of those who are not using telehealth said they are either very likely or likely to start using telehealth within three years. Of the physicians who have tried telemedicine, 15 percent use video visits two times a week or more. More than half of respondents who are not using telehealth said they are either very likely or likely to start using telehealth within three years, brining the total percentage of physicians using telehealth to roughly 61 percent by 2022.