Presentation (and a conversation) about telehealth at Broadband Breakfast

I was delighted today to spend time learning about the possibilities of telehealth and application at leading edge care systems at the Broadband Breakfast, in Washington, DC, including Department of Veteran’s Affairs, and The Army.

The room we were in was not really conducive to showing audiovisuals (however, I was able to play one of Kaiser Permanente’s new radio spots about the Internet…), so I am posting the slides I would have shown here for the audience, and any other interested parties.

A few a ha’s from this very accomplished panel included Ron Poropatich, MD’s experience that the people he serves often have full e-mail boxes these days. They tell him, “text me.” Jay Sanders, MD from the Global Telemedicine Group continues to inspire with his optimism that telehealth is achievable, and not just for the sick, but the well, also.

If you’ve seen my recent presentations, these slides will look familiar; however, I have added a few pieces on Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to eliminating health disparities, and to reducing the carbon footprint of health care. The image of the award is one that Kaiser Permanente owns,given to it by the Environmental Protection Agency in April, 2009.

Finally, I have to say that it’s still impressive, in 2009, that you can ask a room of professionals supporting next generation technology if they have broadband at home (all of them raise their hand), and then you ask if they can e-mail their doctor, all of the hands go down.

Actually, all the hands went down except for the two people in this room who are Kaiser Permanente members … and I am one of them.

See what you think, and enjoy.

4 Comments

It's interesting that our communication trends continue evolve (or is it abused?). We used to get too many phone calls, now too many emails. Soon it will be too many texts or tweets. Looking forward to what's next!

Btw – nice new look.

Hi Colby,

What's new with you?

I like the observation – well said. It seems the one thing that changes with each medium, though, is the fidelity – from high (we're connected synchronously) to low (we're connected asynchronously) to really low (I may not get your message at all).

I think what's next is micro-microblogging – 10 characters max. And then let's go to one character – choose the symbol of your choice, (just kidding, or am I?)

Ted

Ted Eytan, MD