The 1999 ATSP Report on Telemedicine in the United States

The third annual ATSP Report of U.S. Telemedicine Activity provides vital statistics you need to make decisions in a highly competitive industry.

Highlights of ATSP 1999 Report on U.S. Telemedicine Activity

This is the third year of a collaborative effort with Telemedicine Today magazine to collect program-level data. Readers will find it to be the most extensive effort yet to document the state of the telemedicine industry from the clinical providers’ perspective.

This year’s report includes

  • analysis and interpretation of findings
  • a set of appendices for quick referencing of a broad
  • range of industry program-level information
  • mapping of telemedicine-equipped facilities by region
  • more detailed information on programs’ sources of funding
  • information on prison telemedicine
  • data on equipment use and satisfaction

Some of the report’s findings

  • Telemedicine continues to grow. There are more documented programs, higher levels of clinical activity. Continued increase in the average number of teleconsultations per program suggests that actual growth is occurring. However, growth does not mean that all patients or programs are benefiting equally. Activity varies greatly by program, by state, by clinical specialty, and by population served (prison programs make up 20% of reported activity for 1998).
  • Telemedicine systems are being employed extensively for uses other than the delivery of patient care.
  • Educational use of systems is extensive—mostly consisting of continuing-education offerings for nurses and physicians, as well as grand rounds, supervision and teaching applications.
  • The "conventional model" (which may have never mirrored reality) of specialist consultation delivered to rural hospitals describes only a fraction of what is occurring.
  • More than 30 different clinical services are being offered by programs, and more than 40 types of clinical facilities are equipped and participating in telemedicine networks, some of which are entirely urban-based. Programs are learning to apply the technologies in novel ways (e.g. the use of videoconferencing to facilitate patient visitation in ICU, or to allow in-patients to "attend" important social events in their lives).
  • There is little consensus on issues of scale or size in designing a telemedicine network.
  • Telecommunications technologies are becoming more diverse. While interactive video is still the most common means of delivering care remotely, store-and-forward, audiographic and telemetry technologies are gaining wider acceptance, and many programs deliver care using a combination of these.

Association of Telehealth Service Providers
4702 SW Scholls Ferry Road #400
Portland, Oregon 97225-2008
USA

Email: info@atsp.org

Highlights: http://www.atsp.org/survey/reports/homepage.asp

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