Vital Directions for Health and Health Care: Priorities From a National Academy of Medicine Initiative.

Importance: Recent discussion has focused on questions related to the repeal and replacement of portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, issues central to the future of health and health care in the United States transcend the ACA provisions receiving the greatest attention. Initiatives directed to certain strategic and infrastructure priorities are vital to achieve better health at lower cost.

The empirical foundations of telemedicine interventions for chronic disease management.

The telemedicine intervention in chronic disease management promises to involve patients in their own care, provides continuous monitoring by their healthcare providers, identifies early symptoms, and responds promptly to exacerbations in their illnesses. This review set out to establish the evidence from the available literature on the impact of telemedicine for the management of three chronic diseases: congestive heart failure, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. By design, the review focuses on a limited set of representative chronic diseases because of their current and increasing importance relative to their prevalence, associated morbidity, mortality, and cost.

Connected health: a review of technologies and strategies to improve patient care with telemedicine and telehealth.

With the advent of national health reform, millions more Americans are gaining access to a health care system that is struggling to provide high-quality care at reduced costs. The increasing adoption of electronic technologies is widely recognized as a key strategy for making health care more cost-effective. This article examines the concept of connected health as an overarching structure for telemedicine and telehealth, and it provides examples of its value to professionals as well as patients.

Remote patient management: technology-enabled innovation and evolving business models for chronic disease care.

Remote patient management (RPM) is a transformative technology that improves chronic care management while reducing net spending for chronic disease. Broadly deployed within the Veterans Health Administration and in many small trials elsewhere, RPM has been shown to support patient self-management, shift responsibilities to non-clinical providers, and reduce the use of emergency department and hospital services. Because transformative technologies offer major opportunities to advance national goals of improved quality and efficiency in health care, it is important to understand their evolution, the experiences of early adopters, and the business models that may support their deployment.

The future of remote health services: summary of an expert panel discussion.

Health Technology Center (HealthTech), a nonprofit research and education organization that develops objective technology forecasts, hosted an expert panel discussion aimed at delineating the future of remote health services (RHS). RHS is defined as involving patient care interactions that are geographically disparate and enabled by telecommunications, information technology, and sensor technology. Key players involved are physicians and nonphysician clinicians, sick or healthy individuals, and their friends or family.

New technology planning and approval: critical factors for success.

The steady evolution of technology, with the associated increased costs, is a major factor affecting health care delivery. In the face of limited capital resources, it is important for hospitals to integrate technology management with the strategic plan, mission, and resource availability of the organization. Experiences in technology management have shown that having a well-organized, consistent approach to technology planning, assessment, committee membership, approval, evaluation, implementation, and monitoring are key factors necessary to ensure a successful program.

How hospitals confront new technology.

Hospital technology decision makers now confront a growing pipeline of information technology (IT) and major medical equipment that challenges traditional capital allocation processes. In a highly fragmented industry that is driven by coverage and reimbursement policies set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and private insurers, the cumulative impact of hospitals' technology investment decisions shapes health care for decades.We propose a framework for the development of a national collaboration for the planning and assessment of emerging technologies, designed to improve the quality and efficiency of hospital decisions.