Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Promise of Telemedicine

Opportunities are far too promising and complex for government to control

By John R. Graham

The St. Louis (that's the city Barack Obama he thought he was in a couple of days ago, before he figured out he was in Kansas City) Post-Dispatch ran a very positive article on the success of telemedicine in increasing quality and lowering health care costs.

What impressed me was the scope of innovation and entrepreneurialism encompassed by the term, "telemedicine". "More than 200,000 Americans are using telehealth home-monitoring services..... There are another 200 dedicated telemedicine networks nationwide, involving close to 3,500 medical and health care institutions," according to the article.

With that pace of innovation, states need to ensure that telemedicine can operate freely across state lines, without undue regulation. Telemedicine licensing regulations are measurement no. 22 in the U.S. Index of Health Care Ownership, 2nd ed., in case you want to know where your state ranks.