Telehealth, also referred to as telemedicine, is the use of telecommunication and information technologies to provide clinical health care at a distance.
In the current medical landscape, with rising co-pays and deductibles, plus a potential shortfall of as many as 52,000 physicians by 2025, telehealth helps eliminate distance barriers and improves access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is well- established in rural areas for specialty consultations, and has been widely used in many primary-care practices such as pediatrics as a practical matter (although most pediatricians do not bill for phone consultations).
More broadly, telehealth is gaining ground as an alternative to urgent care or the emergency department for less-severe concerns, such as ear infections and colds. Some insurance providers now offer video visits to patients. They claim that video visits have the potential to lower costs and improve access, quality of care, and efficiency, as well as patient and physician satisfaction.
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Here are some of the vendor offerings available from SYNNEX to help build a solution for telehealth: