Telemedicine - Coursework Example

Telemedicine, Needs assessment al affiliation Needs of telemedicine Little knowledge of health insurance has brought about many concerns on the health care system in America, due to little understanding of insurance covering. Our research shows that the telemedicine improves the health care system but for it to be effective and efficient there are some needs that have to be laid out to the consumers;1. Lack of knowledge Consumers lack appropriate knowledge of health insurance making them make wrong decisions.

According to our research, this comes about when hard terminologies that are easy to understand by the consumer are used hence making them only concentrate on the less complex information available in the policy of the provider.2. Identification of key parameters in health insurance plan Consumers need to be properly clarified on the key areas of health insurance. In our pilot market, we found out that consumers have difficulty in identifying key areas of health insurance due to excess of information in their websites creating confusion and misinterpretation of information about their health system policies.

According to our research, we identified that the numerous information did not apply in most circumstances to the consumer. Most of the consumers did not even use the web sites to get information that they needed. Our telemedicine application entails the basic and most important information, these comprises of: pharmacy benefits,amount to be charged, yearly limit rates,PCP office copay and special care necessities for folks as well as individual health plan policies. This system will use a simple geographical interface which is user-friendly to consumers (Darkins 2000).3. Understand and easy to compere two or more health plans In our research, we identified that the consumers had a hard task comparing insurance plans.

The consumer should be able to compare different insurance health plans to be able to find the most suitable insurance health plan by using the telemedicine to plan for the future.Tools/technologies/solutions that address the needs of telemedicine1. Video telephony technology. This technology help professionals in different places exchange ideas and information without being in the same place or even have to travel to attend to patients this saves time for the consumers making it easy and cheap.

Video telephony is mainly used by the deaf, speech-impaired, people with mobility issues and people who are far away and need telemedical services.2. Health information technology Health information technology (HIT) is an umbrella that describes the management and information of health using computerized systems. Health information technology, decreases paperwork, cut the cost of health care services, reduce medical errors, increase administrative efficiency and improve health care quality.HIT also improves patient care bringing many health benefits such as tracking of chronic diseases and also detection of infectious out brake early (Darkins 2000).

ReferencesDarkins, A. W., & Cary, M. A. (2000). Telemedicine and telehealth: Principles, policies, performance, and pitfalls. New York: Springer.