The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog

It’s at least a 12-hour drive from Salt Lake City, Utah, to the Arizona-Mexico border city of Nogales. But for community health workers in both of those cities, the distance has become much shorter, thanks in large part to the Arizona Telemedicine Program.

Salt Lake City is home to the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute – a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center – as well as the recently formed Community Health Worker Coalition of Utah, a project of the Utah Department of Health. The coalition is made up of about 30 organizations, including Huntsman Cancer Institute.

The European Psychiatric International Congress, held in Madrid last month, drew behavioral health professionals from around the world, including Herbert Schwager, PhD, a clinical psychologist from the town of Willow, Alaska.

Dr. Schwager was invited to the prestigious gathering to present his paper on “The 21st Century House Call.” The paper summarized his research comparing the efficacy and patient satisfaction of face-to-face psychotherapy sessions with tele-behavioral medicine sessions, with patient and therapist meeting via secure video conference sofrware.

Dr. Schwager’s study involved 400 patients. Two hundred were followed via tele-behavioral medicine, and the other 200 in face-to-face meetings. Patients were studied over a two-year period.

Imagine a mother who is juggling two children under the age of five and a full-time hourly wage job.  When her child contracts pink eye or a worsening cold or a sinus infection or asthma, she is forced to choose between giving up wages to see the primary care physician or going to the emergency department that is unable to turn her away, even if she cannot pay, after work hours.  Many choose the latter option but it is costly and risks additional illness. While retail clinics have closed some of the gap in primary care, telehealth visits have the potential to close even more of the gap.  Unfortunately, these visits are rarely covered by private payers and are rarely covered by public payers like Medicare and Medicaid.  So, unless the mother can afford $40-55, the telehealth visit, while saving time, will not be utilized.

On Feb. 25, 2015, vandals cut fiber-optic lines in the Phoenix area, shutting down Internet and phone connections throughout much of northern Arizona. The story was big enough to attract national attention. Here’s a report from CBS News:

“People across northern Arizona couldn't use the Internet, their cellphones or landlines for several hours Wednesday (February 25, 2015) after someone vandalized a fiber-optic line that brings communications to a large part of the state, officials said.

Telehealth has been a big buzz word in the healthcare industry over the past couple years. A recent survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) found that 78% of physicians believe telemedicine improves access to care. Another report found 75% of surveyed patients said they would be interested in doing a telemedicine visit in lieu of an in-person medical visit.

There’s clearly momentum behind telehealth. But what many physicians may wonder is - is telemedicine worth it? How will it directly help my practice? Is it worth the initial time and investment?