The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog, Category: mHealth

If you read the morning paper or watch the evening news, you are likely to read or hear an update on the high costs of prescription drugs, emergency room visits and other healthcare essentials. The rising costs are not a new trend, but one that doctors and patients would like to see go away.

The good news is, it’s gradually going away around the country, thanks to another trend called integrated healthcare, established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  

Here’s how it’s been trending in Arizona.

Yikes! Here we are again, heading into the holidays, that time of year when we rush to the store for the perfect turkey, knowing we’ll spend the next several weeks shopping for gifts, baking cookies, writing cards, and making sure we get to the post office on time.

And then we sit down and stop to think of all the people and things we are thankful for. And we are thankful to our friends and colleagues, who are willing to share their thanks with us.

The digital age has presented numerous benefits for a variety of economic sectors with the health industry among the biggest winners. From faster communication between patients and health professionals to better service delivery, health organizations have seen improvements in a variety of daily operations. Sadly, the digital age is a double-edged sword, and as more health organizations use the latest technology, there is the looming threat of poor data security.

The University of Arizona is accepting applications for a Rural Telehealth Certificate Program.  Telehealth has a role in just about all healthcare delivery systems, and nurses are frequently involved as telepresenters or healthcare providers.  In response to the need for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to experience and understand telehealth as a method of healthcare delivery, the Rural Telehealth Certificate Program (RTCP) has been approved and piloted at the UA College of Nursing. December 2019 will mark the graduation of the first cohort of the RTCP, which was composed of four Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) students. Because of the sucess of the pilot program, the College of Nursing has realized the demand for telehealth education at all levels of nursing education.  Starting in January 2020, the RTCP will be offered to all nurses.

You can put the word "smart" in front of just about anything these days — including an entire city. But what does it actually mean?

The concept of smart cities is incredibly exciting. Cities have always been social, cultural and productive centers of society. But the city of the future will help us work and play even smarter, commute more quickly, and make use of more advanced and affordable products and public services. That includes health care.

As the world explores what smart cities are capable of, we're seeing more ways they'll impact the telemedicine industry and vice versa. Let's take a closer look.