What You Should Know:
- The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) announced this week that its CEO’s Advisory Group on Using Telehealth to Eliminate Disparities and Inequities is releasing three new tools this week, to inform ways in which telehealth can impact disparities and inequities.
- All three tools were released today, to commemorate the third annual Telehealth Awareness Week. This year’s events will highlight the value telehealth brings to patients and helps to expand access to quality care, how virtual care is addressing many of the challenges faced by healthcare providers, and its role in building a modern, omnichannel care delivery system.
Improving Accessibility to Healthcare Via Telemedicine
“We launched the advisory group in 2021 to address the unique ways telehealth could be used to eliminate health disparities in the U.S. We are confident that the tools we are launching this week will support decision-making related to targeting and funding interventions that improve health in communities,” said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA. “Our Advisory Group is comprised of national healthcare leaders uniquely focused on health disparities. Led by co-chairs Kristi Henderson, DNP, Yasmine Winkler and Ron Wyatt, MD, and facilitated by David Smith, CEO of Third Horizon Strategies, their groundbreaking work will further position our community to leverage telehealth to eliminate healthcare disparities.”
- The Digital Infrastructure Disparities Score and Map uses a newly created composite measure designed to score a community’s digital infrastructure on a scale of 1-100.
- The Economic and Social Value-Added Calculator tool is designed to scope the cost of telehealth-based clinical or social interventions, including estimates for the total value of an intervention created in favor of payers, providers, government, and business. The calculator analyzes the capital and operating costs for these interventions, including technology platforms (telehealth solutions) and funding needed to ensure community members have solid, reliable, and contiguous broadband connectivity.
- The third tool is a toolkit summarizing all resources the group has released to date, including a new roadmap to address inequalities in the delivery of healthcare information and services with a focus on both access and improving outcomes.
