The only current book on the topic, Telepsychiatry and Health Technologies: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals is a practical, comprehensive, and evidence-based guide to patient-centered clinical care delivered in whole or in part by technological devices and applications. Not a technology-centered "health informatics" book, but rather one that describes basic technological concerns and emphasizes clinical issues and workflows, it is designed for psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health clinicians who seek to learn the modes, models, and methods of telepsychiatry. More than 30 practitioners of telepsychiatry across the core mental health disciplines were involved in development of the text, contributing knowledge and clinical examples. Rich with case studies and hands-on guidance, the book introduces strategies, then clearly illustrates how to put them into practice. The editors believe that psychiatry increasingly will focus on the treatment of populations, and that technology offers the best hope of doing so efficiently and effectively.Careful thought went into the book's conception and design, resulting in a marriage of structure and content that meets the needs of today's clinicians: The editors employed a unique process of manuscript development, first outlining each chapter in its entirety, then assigning sections to contributors selected for their specific clinical experience and therapeutic expertise. The result is a text that flows logically and creates synergy across chapters without duplication. The book provides "how-to" guidance on setting up a new telepsychiatry practice or integrating technologies into a current practice, covering critically important topics such as data collection, security, and electronic health records. Technologies addressed include telephony, smartphones, apps, e-mail, secure texting, and videoconferencing, all of which are increasingly being used in the assessment and treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders. More than 30 case examples of patients or programs are included, illustrating the range of clinical techniques that can be used and the types of patient that can be treated using available technologies -- whether in person, online, or in a hybrid form of care combining both modalities. Every chapter concludes with a summary of major learning objectives or findings covered. Telepsychiatry and Health Technologies: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals is destined to become a core resource in the training of mental health professionals from all disciplines, as well as an indispensable reference for those already integrating new technologies into their practices.

In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.

Telemedicineâ€"the use of information and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participantsâ€"is receiving increasing attention not only in remote areas where health care access is troublesome but also in urban and suburban locations. Yet the benefits and costs of this blend of medicine and digital technologies must be better demonstrated before today's cautious decision-makers invest significant funds in its development. Telemedicine presents a framework for evaluating patient care applications of telemedicine. The book identifies managerial, technical, policy, legal, and human factors that must be taken into account in evaluating a telemedicine program. The committee reviews previous efforts to establish evaluation frameworks and reports on results from several completed studies of image transmission, consulting from remote locations, and other telemedicine programs. The committee also examines basic elements of an evaluation and considers relevant issues of quality, accessibility, and cost of health care. Telemedicine will be of immediate interest to anyone with interest in the clinical application of telemedicine.

This issue of Psychiatric Clinics, guest edited by Dr. Jay Shore, will explore the topic of Integrating Technology into 21st Century Psychiatry, including discussion of telemedicine, social media, and other technologies. This issue is one of four issues each year selected by our series Consulting Editor, Dr. Harsh Trivedi. Topics covered in this volume will include: Review and implementation of self-help and automated tools in mental health care; Managing establishment of patient-provider relationship across modalities and regulatory environments; Establishing Telemental Heath Services from conceptualization to powering up; Assessing cognition outside of the clinic; Clinical lesson from virtual house calls in mental health; Patient portals and electronic health record-based capture of patient-reported outcomes in mental health settings; A history and review of interactive computerized mental health programs; Child and Adolescent Telepsychiatry Education and Training; Intended and Unintended Consequence in the Digital Age of Psychiatry; Recommendations for utilizing Clinical Video Teleconferencing (CVT) with patients at high-risk for suicide, among other topics.

Fundamentals of Telemedicine and Telehealth provides an overview on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to solve health problems, especially for people living in remote and underserviced areas. With the advent of new technologies and improvement of internet connectivity, telehealth has become a new subject requiring a new understanding of IT devices and how to utilize them to fulfill health needs. The book discusses topics such as digitizing patient information, technology requirements, existing resources, planning for telehealth projects, and primary care and specialized applications. Additionally, it discusses the use of telemedicine for patient empowerment and telecare in remote locations. Authored by IMIA Telehealth working group, this book is a valuable source for graduate students, healthcare workers, researchers and clinicians interested in using telehealth as part of their practice or research. Presents components of healthcare that can be benefitted from remote access and when to rely on them Explains the current technologies and tools and how to put them to effective use in daily healthcare Provides legal provisions for telehealth implementation, discussing the risks of remote healthcare provision and cross border care

E-Health, Telehealth, and Telemedicine is a hands-on resource that shows how communication technologies can be designed, implemented, and managed to help health care professionals expand and transform their organizations. Step by step the authors reveal how to introduce innovative communication tools to a wide range of health care settings. This indispensable book contains a wealth of information, suggestions, and advice about program development, ethical, legal and regulatory issues, and and technical options.

Winner of the British Sociological Association Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize, 2012. This book traces the changes in healthcare implicated in telecare technologies: information and communication technologies that enable care at a distance. What happens when healthcare moves from physical to virtual encounters between healthcare professionals and patients? What are the consequences for patients when they are expected to do things that used to be done by healthcare professionals? What actually happens when homes become electronically wired to healthcare organizations? These are urgent questions that are, however, largely absent in dominant discourses on telecare. Drawing on insights from science, technology, and human geography, this work opens up novel accounts of the adoption and use of new technologies in healthcare. Nelly Oudshoorn shows how telecare technologies participate in redefining the responsibilities and identities of patients and healthcare professionals, introducing a new category of healthcare workers, and changing the kinds of care and spaces where healthcare is situated. This book intervenes critically into discourses that celebrate the independence of place and time by showing how places and physical contacts still matter in care at a distance.