Advancing TeleHealth in Florida

This article is reprinted with permission from Orlando Medical News.

WINTER PARK – As Floridians morph into holiday mode, a very important meeting will take place concerning a critical aspect of futuristic medicine Dec. 4-5 at The Alfond Inn in Winter Park.

The Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC), Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine, and the Florida Partnership for TeleHealth will host the inaugural annual Florida TeleHealth Summit – Transforming the Delivery of Healthcare – for healthcare providers, hospital and health system administrators, policy makers, elected local and state officials, university administrators, IT experts, and telehealth industry leaders.

“This will be the Florida’s first focused statewide telehealth summit,” said SETRC director Rena Brewer, RN, MA. “We have folks from across the state contributing to this important agenda. There’s a lot of telemedicine going on in Florida right now, despite the lack of telehealth supporting policy.”

In less than a year, Waycross, Ga.-based SETRC, which also serves Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, has provided a platform for telehealth stakeholders from across the state to come together in three regional workgroups to improve collaboration, address barriers, and overall, advance telehealth in Florida. Healthcare industry advocates have lobbied state lawmakers to pass telehealth legislation that includes, among other points, reimbursement for telehealth at the same rate as an in-clinic visit. Bills introduced in the 2014 session didn’t gain sufficient traction.

A priority agenda item for the summit, which will begin and end with policymakers, will include gearing up for comprehensive telehealth legislation in the 2015 legislative session.

“Florida’s been chewing on it for a couple of years at the capitol,” said Brewer. “We’re hopeful 2015 is the year for meaningful telehealth policy for Florida.”

Healthcare Reform

Telemedicine is the key to reforming healthcare, emphasized Paula Guy, CEO of Global Partnership for TeleHealth and the Florida Partnership for TeleHealth.

“Access to care is becoming more of a problem and telemedicine is the answer, especially as fewer primary doctors are coming out of residency … and more new physicians are moving into specialties,” she explained. “Technology is allowing the physician to go to the patient instead of vice versa, and there are truly no limits with telemedicine.”

Guy quashed a misperception about telemedicine by pointing out that “the right telemedicine can be extremely high quality, very efficient and quite cost-effective.”

SETRC is also working with hospitals on readmission issues, an area in which telemedicine can make a tremendous difference and also allay fiscal penalties.

“One of the leading reasons for readmission is chronic disease,” said Guy. “When patients are sent home, it’s typically not with the kind of follow-up needed to keep them out of hospitals. Heart failure is a great example. Telemedicine allows the necessary follow-up and patient education opportunities for those who have been recently discharged. Patients can use simple technology to record heart rhythms and submit other patient biometrics.”

Agenda Highlights

Meeting agenda highlights slated for the first annual Florida TeleHealth Summit:

• David Christian, vice president of government affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, will moderate a Day 1 early morning session on Florida TeleHealth Policy.
• Anne Burdick, MD, MPH, associate dean of telemedicine and clinical outreach for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will lead a discussion on TeleHealth: Enhancing Healthcare for Floridians.
• Mark Stavros, MD, FACEP, associate professor of clinical sciences and education director of emergency medicine for the FSU College of Medicine; Kim M. Landry, MD, FACEP, associate professor of the FSU College of Medicine and CEO of Excalibur Telemedical Services Inc.; and Antonio Carlos de Cunha Marttos, MD, assistant professor of surgery and director of Global e-Health for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will serve on the pre-lunch Emergency Telehealth Panel.
• Jay H. Sanders, MD, CEO of The Global Telemedicine Group and founding board member and president emeritus of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), will present the luncheon keynote address. (Florida has approached the ATA about becoming its first state chapter.)
• Florida telehealth initiatives to be discussed cover ALS patients, behavioral health, cardiac patients, e-ICU, school-based teleheath, telegenetics, telestroke, and how telemedicine can increase efficiencies and patient access.
• Ken Peach, executive director of the Health Council of East Central Florida, will moderate discussion about strategies for moving telehealth forward in Florida.
• Day 2 begins with a look at improving access to care for rural patients with multiple sclerosis, featuring Paul Hoffman, MD, and Sean McCoy, PhD, both with VA Telehealth. McCoy recently reported the VA model allows for healthcare providers to “practice anywhere in system,” and discussed how 11 state consortiums in the Northeast have reciprocity for nursing licensure; a current congressional bill proposes licensure requirement for the state of residency only.
• Christopher Sullivan, PhD, of Image Research LLC, will moderate a discussion on health information exchanges (HIEs) concerning telemedicine and public health.
• Deborah Randall, a health law attorney and telehealth consultant, will moderate a panel discussion on telehealth legal considerations. Also on the panel: healthcare attorneys Michael R. Lowe of Michael R. Lowe PA, and Lance Leider of The Health Law Firm.
• Chris Pittman, MD, president-elect of the Florida Medical Association’s political action committee, will participate in a panel discussion on The Politics of Telehealth.
• The summit will close with a summary discussion of the unlimited potential of telehealth in Florida.

“If you’re not doing telemedicine today, you will within a couple of years,” said Guy. “That’s why healthcare providers need to attend this conference. Telemedicine is changing people’s lives for the better.”

The Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC) is one of 14 regional and national HRSA-funded TeleHealth Resource Centers. The non-profit Georgia Partnership for TeleHealth Inc. operates Atlanta-based SETRC, which serves as a resource to organizations, networks, and practitioners interested in providing, supporting and promoting telehealth services for the rural and underserved in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Its primary mission: to increase the use of telehealth services throughout the region, especially to underserved populations.

For more information, visit www.setrc.us or contact SETRC director Rena Brewer, RN, MA, via rena.brewer@gatelehealth.org or 229/291-0494.

To register for the Florida TeleHealth Summit, visit: https://www.fltelehealth.org/florida/conference/fpt-conference-2014/