About UsGetting Telehealth Enabled is a service to provide information and guidance for Specialists, General Practitioners and Aged Care Facilities on the issues around becoming "Telehealth Enabled".
The need for this service has arisen from recent events in the Australian Health landscape
Announcement of Medicare Rebates for Online Consultations. DoHA has announced that “From 1 July 2011 people in remote, regional and outer metropolitan areas of Australia will have access to Telehealth; an initiative allowing patients to have video consultations with a range of medical specialists. This will provide patients with easier access to specialists, without the time and expense involved in travelling to major cities”
Available Incentives Provision of Incentives to encourage adoption of equipment and services to enable Health Providers and Hosting services to conduct Telehealth. Link to Telehealth Program Guidelines
The great need for accurate and timely information The presence of the above, without sufficient published information on how to proceed with acquiring knowledge, expertise, services and equipment to allow provision of Telehealth Consultations has led to the promotion of services that may not meet Guidelines published by DoHA.
Why do we need this serviceDoHA has asked that, considering the lack of prevailing specific standards for Primary Care via Video Consultation, that health providers please work with their chosen technology providers to meet a series of Guidelines that have already been developed and published along with the Medicare Rebate Announcements. These recommendations are a combination of Privacy, Security, Interoperability and Technical specifications which, although very necessary, do not fully inform Practitioners of available options and how they meet the Guidelines and the needs of the General Practices, Specialist Rooms and Aged Care Facilities.
"Getting Telehealth Enabled" aims to fill this gap by providing more concrete examples of the services and solutions that satisfy needs in a range of scenarios or service contexts.
What is "Telehealth Enabled"Simply a statement that says you have engaged in the due diligence to consult and select a Video Conferencing solution and services that adhere to the guidelines from DoHA and can provide broad interoperability with other Telehealth providers.
More about the Privacy, Security and Technical Specification Guidelines |
Scenarios
Remote consultation
Scenario: Remote consultation
From DoHA Medicare Rebates for Telehealth Brochure.
Mary lives on a dairy farm in NSW, twenty minutes drive from Bega. Mary’s local GP is Dr Sharma, who detected Mary’s respiratory disorder in 2010. Dr Sharma referred her to Dr Brown, a specialist... Read more..
