Jordana Bernard

American Telemedicine Association's practice guidelines for teledermatology

The ATA assembled a group of experts to develop practice guidelines for teledermatology. This document represents the body of work that this distinguished group assembled. It was approved by the ATA Board of Directors and is presented here in its entirety.

ATA practice guidelines for video-based online mental health services

Table of Contents PREAMBLE SCOPE INTRODUCTION Internet-Based Telemental Health Models of Care Today CLINICAL GUIDELINES A. Professional and Patient Identity and Location 1. Provider and Patient Identity Verification 2. Provider and Patient Location Documentation 3. Contact Information Verification for Professional and Patient 4. Verification of Expectations Regarding Contact Between Sessions B. Patient Appropriateness for Videoconferencing-Based Telemental Health 1. Appropriateness of Videoconferencing in Settings Where Professional Staff Are Not Immediately Available C. Informed Consent D. Physical Environment E. Communication and Collaboration with the Patients Treatment Team F. Emergency Management 1. Education and Training 2. Jurisdictional Mental Health Involuntary Hospitalization Laws 3. Patient Safety When Providing Services in a Setting with Immediately Available Professionals 4. Patient Safety When Providing Services in a Setting Without Immediately Available Professional Staff 5. Patient Support Person and Uncooperative Patients 6. Transportation 7. Local Emergency Personnel G. Medical Issues H. Referral Resources I .Community and Cultural Competency TECHNICAL GUIDELINES A. Videoconferencing Applications B. Device Characteristics C. Connectivity D. Privacy ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDELINES A. Qualification and Training of Professionals B. Documentation and Record Keeping C. Payment and Billing REFERENCES.

Standards and Guidelines in Telemedicine and Telehealth.

The development of guidelines and standards for telemedicine is an important and valuable process to help insure effective and safe delivery of quality healthcare. Some organizations, such as the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), have made the development of standards and guidelines a priority. The practice guidelines developed so far have been well received by the telemedicine community and are being adopted in numerous practices, as well as being used in research to support the practice and growth of telemedicine. Studies that utilize published guidelines not only help bring them into greater public awareness, but they also provide evidence needed to validate existing guidelines and guide the revision of future versions. Telemedicine will continue to grow and be adopted by more healthcare practitioners and patients in a wide variety of forms not just in the traditional clinical environments, and practice guidelines will be a key factor in fostering this growth. Creation of guidelines is important to payers and regulators as well as increasingly they are adopting and integrating them into regulations and policies. This paper will review some of the recent ATA efforts in developing telemedicine practice guidelines, review the role of research in guidelines development, review data regarding their use, and discuss some of areas where guidelines are still needed.

A Lexicon of Assessment and Outcome Measures for Telemental Health

BACKGROUND The purpose of this document is to provide initial recommendations to telemental health (TMH) professionals for the selection of assessment and outcome measures that best reflect the impacts of mental health treatments delivered via live interactive videoconferencing. MATERIALS AND METHODS The guidance provided here was created through an expert consensus process and is in the form of a lexicon focused on identified key TMH outcomes. RESULTS Each lexical item is elucidated by a definition, recommendations for assessment/measurement, and additional commentary on important considerations. The lexicon is not intended as a current literature review of the field, but rather as a resource to foster increased dialogue, critical analysis, and the development of the science of TMH assessment and evaluation. The intent of this lexicon is to better unify the TMH field by providing a resource to researchers, program managers, funders, regulators and others for assessing outcomes. CONCLUSIONS This document provides overall context for the key aspects of the lexicon.

Utilization of the American Telemedicine Association's clinical practice guidelines.

BACKGROUND The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Standards and Guidelines Committee develops practice standards and guidelines. Key to the Committees mission is dissemination so the standards can be used in the practice of telemedicine. Over a 2-year period, when a standards document was accessed from the ATA Web site, a short survey was completed, but it did not assess how the documents were used once downloaded. A more formal survey was conducted to determine the impact ATA standards and guidelines are having on healthcare delivery via telemedicine. MATERIALS AND METHODS A survey was developed and distributed via SurveyMonkey to 13,177 ATA members and nonmembers in November 2011. Results were compiled and analyzed after a 90-day open period for responses to be submitted. RESULTS The majority of respondents (96%) believe the practice of telemedicine/telehealth should have standards and guidelines and that the ATA and other professional societies/associations should be responsible for developing them. The top uses of guidelines include guidance for clinical practice, training, gaining reimbursement, and research. Respondents indicating a need for standards and guidelines said the ATA (78.7%) and other professional societies/associations (74.5%) should be responsible for development. When asked to list specific practice guidelines or standards they are using for telehealth, the majority (21.5%) are using in-house (e.g., hospital, company)-developed guidelines, followed by those from professional associations/societies (20.4%) and those developed by the ATA (18.2%). CONCLUSIONS Overall, the survey results indicate guidelines documents developed by the ATA and other professional societies and those developed in-house are being regularly accessed and used in both public and private sectors. Practitioners of telemedicine believe that standards and guidelines are needed for guidance for clinical practice, training, gaining reimbursement, and research, and they are to use those developed by professional organization such as the ATA as well as those developed by their own institutions.

ATA clinical guidelines for telepathology

Liron Pantanowitz, MD, Kim Dickinson, MD, MBA, MPH, Andrew J. Evans, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Lewis A. Hassell, MD, Walter H. Henricks, MD, Jochen K. Lennerz, MD, PhD, Amanda Lowe, Anil V. Parwani, MD, PhD, MBA, Michael Riben, MD, COL Daniel Smith, MD, PhD, J. Mark Tuthill, MD, Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, David C. Wilbur, MD, Elizabeth A. Krupinski, PhD, and Jordana Bernard, MBA Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Integrated Oncology, LabCorp, Digital Pathology Association, Irvine, California. Department of Pathology, University Health Network Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada. Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. Institute of Pathology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee, Germany. Visiopharm, Broomfield, Colorado. Anatomic Pathology Informatics, Department of Pathology, MD Anderson Hospital, Houston, Texas. Department of Pathology, Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi. Pathology Informatics, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan. Department of Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Medical Imaging, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. American Telemedicine Association, Washington, D.C.

The Use of Collaboration Science to Define Consensus Outcome Measures: A Telemental Health Case Study

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of a collaboration science process used to develop recommendations for the field of telemental health (TMH) in the selection of outcome measures that best reflect programmatic impacts. A common use of group development techniques in medicine is the development of clinical guidelines, which typically occurs using one of two methods: the nominal group or the Delphi method. Both processes have been faulted for limited transparency, reliability, and sustainability. Recommendations to improve the traditional process include making goals explicit, making disagreements transparent, and publicly displaying levels of agreement. A group of 26 TMH experts convened during the American Telemedicine Associations 2012 Fall Forum in New Orleans, LA to participate in a 1-day, interactive, consensus-building workshop to initiate the development of a shared lexicon of outcomes. The workshop method was designed to improve on traditional methods of guideline development by focusing on clarity of expectations, transparency, and timeliness of group development work. Results suggest that, compared with other traditional methods, the current process involved more people, occurred more rapidly, was more transparent, and resulted in a comparable deliverable. Recommendations for further process development, both within and external to TMH, as well as an initial overview of defined outcome measures are discussed.

The Fourteenth Annual International Meeting and Exposition of the American Telemedicine Association

he Fourteenth Annual International Meeting and Exposition of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 26–28, 2009. This year’s meeting was the largest to date, with a record 2,700 attendees. The meeting was opened by President Elizabeth Krupinski, who welcomed the 2,700 attendees with a great report on the Association’s activities over the past year, which included establishment of an accreditation process for telemedicine training programs, and creation of the ATA College of Fellows to which 11 members were inducted. First Class of ATA Fellows (Inducted 2009) Dale Alverson, M.D. Nina Antoniotti, R.N., M.B.A., Ph.D. Rashid Bashshur, Ph.D. Elizabeth Krupinski, Ph.D. Joseph Kvedar, M.D. Thelma McCloskey-Armstrong COL Ronald Poropatich, M.D. Jane Preston, M.D., F.A.P.A.* Jay Sanders, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.A.A.I. Robert Waters, J.D. Ronald Weinstein, M.D. *Posthumously