Telehealth policy: looking for global complementarity.
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Date
2003-03-28
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Abstract
Telehealth is gaining acceptance as a tool for bridging the local and global health care divides However integrating telehealth into existing health infrastructures presents a daunting challenge for governments policy makers telehealth advocates and health care workers The development of specific inter jurisdictional telehealth policies will significantly improve the ability to meet this challenge In the policy context one success is the increasing number of jurisdictions addressing policy issues However policy decisions have largely been taken in isolation within individual health institutions regions provinces states or countries This represents a failure of the current approach Telehealth by its very nature has the ability to transgress existing geo political boundaries As a consequence policy in any single jurisdiction may hamper or even cripple the ability of telehealth to fulfil its potential Commonality or at least complementarity of approach to telehealth policy must be encouraged To achieve this it is essential to understand the current or anticipated regulatory constraints that may affect telehealth We have begun a preliminary study of country specific policy issues