Having spent my career in Information Technology, I readily recognize IT in and of itself is not a panacea, but when implemented in thoughtful, prudent, and selective ways within the healthcare domain,  it can successfully address the predominant issues of access for the insured/uninsured/under-insured, reduction of utilization, reduction of errors, and improved provider collaboration/information sharing.

One of the benefits of telehealth is it provides us with the ability deliver care, monitor patient compliance, or interact with our patients at a distance and expanded the patient relationship beyond the walls of our clinic. People are online using services, educating themselves, watching video, interacting with others….shouldn’t we be online with them, enabling their participation in their own care?

We can change the consumer’s, payor’s, and referring physician’s perception about rehabilitation, but to do so, we need to evolve the delivery of our services, address factors that impact the efficacy of our services (65% of our patients are partially or non-compliant with their plan), and distance ourselves from other professions that do not have the training we do.  Let’s bring evidence closer to the point of care and make it more usable for the therapist, let’s own the patient relationship post-discharge by providing new services we have the training to deliver, and let’s look even harder at our patients as customers.

There is so much business opportunity for us as a profession with the aging of the population. Let us not continue to cede it to others.

We look forward to an ongoing discussion and welcome your comments. Be healthy.