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J Am Med Inform Assoc 1997;4:399-412 doi:10.1136/jamia.1997.0040399
  • Focus on Consumer Health
  • Viewpoint

Telemedicine and the National Information Infrastructure: Are the Realities of Health Care Being Ignored?

  1. Mary Gardiner Jones
  1. Affiliation of the author: Consumer Interest Research Institute, Washington, DC
  1. Correspondence and reprints: Mary Gardiner Jones, President, Consumer Interest Research Institute, 1631 Suter's Lane NW, Washington, DC 20007. E-mail: mgjones{at}cqi.com
  • Received 28 May 1997
  • Accepted 8 July 1997

Abstract

Health care is shifting from a focus on hospital-based acute care toward prevention, promotion of wellness, and maintenance of function in community and home-based facilities. Telemedicine can facilitate this shifted focus, but the bulk of the current projects emphasize academic medical center consultations to rural hospitals. Home-based projects encounter barriers of cost and inadequate infrastructure. The 1996 Telecommunications Act as implemented by the Federal Communications commission holds out significant promise to overcome these barriers, although it has serious limitations in its application to health care providers. Health care advocates must work actively on the federal, state, and local public and private sector levels to address these shortcomings and develop cost effective partnerships with other community-based organizations to build network links to facilitate telemedicine-generated services to the home, where the majority of health care decisions are made.

Footnotes

  • This work was presented to the 1997 AMIA Spring Congress, May 1997, San Jose, CA.

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