IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The report, released Wednesday, shows that 68 percent of urban physicians, 43 percent of physicians in semi-rural areas and 17 percent of rural physicians have broadband connections - cable or T1 connection.

AmeriChoice, a division of United Healthcare, has awarded a $290,000 grant to the Community Health Network in Tennessee. The nonprofit organization will be able to expand its telehealth network to five new facilities, in addition to the 80 sites already on the network.

The 65-year-old woman's car is broken down, and she has to rely on family members to take her to doctor's appointments.

"If I have a way to go, I'll go. If I don't, I won't," she said.

A new high-tech medical video network allows Chattanooga doctors specializing in "at risk" pregnancies to consult electronically with pregnant patients in rural areas. Dr. Carlos Torres says "a lot of the clinical conditions we deal with require very close fetal and maternal surveillance, what this allows us to do is avoid all that back and forth traveling and basically bring the doctor to you."

And that's one reason Devon Herrick, an analyst with the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, says more doctors need to embrace technology and go online to give patients more access to health care.

The study, released Thursday, found not only are some doctors answering questions via e-mail, but they are also treating patients over the Internet. But Internet doctoring faces a mountain of questions about quality, liability, regulatory control and security before it becomes more accepted, according to a Connecticut-based patient advocate and the executive director of the Fairfield County Medical Association.

The schools preparing to take advantage of thousands of job openings: The Office of the National Coordinator in Washington estimates that the U.S. will be short 50,000 skilled workers over the next five years to make the conversion to e-health records. That could mean as many as 5,000 new jobs in Texas. “Trying to get that many people to implement that technology that quickly, part of what that produces is great demand for additional workers,” says Susan Fenton, an assistant professor at Texas State who is heading the grant application.

The last doctor packed up and left Bronte more than 10 years ago.

The community’s 1,000 or so residents for the past decade — and everyone else in Coke County — have had to commute 30 or more miles to San Angelo or Abilene to get medical attention.

Telemedicine is bringing health care back to Bronte, and the same system has connected San Angelo to urban center specialists whom patients would otherwise have to travel hours or even days to see.

The clinic, located at 10500 Broadway, is jointly operated by My Healthy Access Inc. (OTCBB: MYHA) and NuPhysicia LLC.

The firms claim that the Pearland location is the first retail health clinic to employ a telemedicine -based healthcare delivery system. Under the telemedicine model, physicians serve patients using remote telemedicine systems and protocols through paramedics who examine patients under direct supervision of a physician.

The growing practice allows doctors in one city to visit with patients in others far away in real time via the Internet and video conferencing. Advocates say the technology helps reduce barriers to health care by increasing access to doctors.

The group that helped pioneer remote medical treatment of prison inmates in Texas hopes to commercialize that technology and market it beyond government contracts.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is expanding part of its telemedicine group as a for-profit startup, dubbed NuPhysicia, with $5 million in funding from Houston-based private equity group Sanders Morris Harris.

Online physician consultations, also called e-visits, are already being used to treat patients for non-emergency conditions and to answer questions about minor ailments, symptoms or medications. According to Meredith Ressi, vice president of research at the health information firm Manhattan Research, about 42% of U.S. physicians say they've discussed clinical symptoms online with patients, and more than 9 million consumers report having had e-mail communication with their physician.

Telemedicine as policy has become an integral part of the law as $27 billion was earmarked for health care information technology as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus plan.

But telemedicine as a successful practice or an everyday tool for physicians and patients has remained a mystery. Until now.

Electronic health records (EHR) are being heralded by the Obama Administration and many within the health profession as a way to improve record keeping and prevent inaccurate medical records. President Obama is pushing the industry to make all medical records computerized by 2014.

Adoption of EHRs has been steadily growing, but still does not encompass 50% of physicians. According to a recent study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, 44% of physicians reported using an EHR in 2009.

OptumHealth, a division of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, plans to offer NowClinic, a service that connects patients and doctors using video chat, nationwide next year. It is introducing it state by state, starting with Texas, but not without resistance from state medical associations.

Nearly a year in the making, the proposed rules set the stage for a nationwide digital healthcare system by offering doctors and hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in financial incentives for meeting three stages of progressively more demanding goals for using health IT in their practices.

"They get to stay with their local, family care doctor who they have a relationship with," explains Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. Beyond the comfort factor, Dr. Harriett Loehne, Clinical Educator for Wound Management, adds its extremely convenient to assess a patients condition over the computer. "I can do a consult live with the patient right there, and I don't have to travel, nor does the patient have to travel via ambulance or whatever to come down here," says Loehne. Cardiologist Dr. Gerald Kadis adds, "We do sit in a relatively rural part of Georgia and it is difficult for some people to travel around."

According to Forrester Research, health-care enterprises in North America spend just 22 percent of their IT budgets on new IT initiatives, compared with 28 percent for businesses in other sectors, the Financial Times reports.

According to a 2009 report from Manhattan Research, the percentage of physicians using smart phones in the U.S. increased to 64 percent in one year. While the size of the group increased by 20 percent between 2008 and 2009, the number of physicians using iPhones, Androids, and other smartphones doubled.

U.S. lawmakers should avoid passing net neutrality laws as a way to help electronic-health initiatives move forward, an Internet provider trade group said Tuesday.