Using Telehealth to Improve Quality and Safety: Findings from the AHRQ Portfolio.
Telehealth is a rapidly expanding approach of adopting technology to deliver health care services and information that improves the quality, safety, access, efficiency, and costs of care. Although the evidence that telehealth achieves these aims is still lacking, this report outlines AHRQ’s health information technology portfolio, which funded a number of programs to evaluate this promising technology and approach. The report findings are based on interviews with lead investigators. It discusses the scope of the projects funded, the technical challenges faced, the organizational and cultural issues encountered, and the opportunities ahead.