Talk:Telehealth

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Telehealth vs. Telemedicine
I have been reading about telehealth and telemedicine and it seems that both terms are most of the time used interchangeably. From the latest I have read, telehealth is sometimes defined as broader in scope than telemedicine. But I do wonder, do we need two separate articles or should there be just one article and let the other one redirect to it? Books fan 16:14, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

The wikipedia articles contradict each other re the distinction betweeen telehealth and telemedicine. I was going to try to de-conflict, but would welcome help, input, comments. Journalist1983 15:05, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

See my comment on definition of telemedicine page. These two articles should be merged. "Telemedicine" as is presently used encompasses "cybermedicine" and "cybersurgery". Often, "telemedicine" programs are part of larger "E-Health" initiatives. Definitions of telemedicine vary widely. The WHO definition is useful, and quite broad. "Telehealth" is used just about ONLY (nowadays) in the US Medicare statute (defining what services are reimbursable). "Telehealth" for purposes of Medicare reimbursement is currently limited to real time technologies. This change was made by the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act (BIPA 2000). [Anonymous 4/18/08] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.184.99.4 (talk) 05:34, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

I will agree that the term telehealth is commonly used the broad sense versus telemedicine that is actually a subset of telehealth. Telemedicine should be included under the header of Telehealth though not vice versa. Other distinctive terms in this subset are "teleradiology," "telemental health," "teledermatology," "telepsychiatry," "telepathology," "telerehabilitation," "telepharmacy," "teleICU," etc. Fortunately, the telehealth industry is attempting to define standards for a range of issues including the definition for telehealth terms. Other terms often used interchangeably and sure to be considered are, "virtualmedicine," "virtualhealthcare," "e-health," "ePharmacy," "eICU," "electronic health record," and "personal health record,"(last two not interchangeable). Although Medicare may have early statements utilizing the term telemedicine in its definitions and releases, I would argue that telehealth is definitely not limited to real time technology. And in fact, Medicare does not reimburse for telemedicine nor any other telehealth services outside of non-MSA and PSA areas where the industry is experiencing the fastest growth. While the terms continue to be used interchangeably for the moment, I would recommend waiting for the final definitions from industry leaders such as the American TeleMEDICINE Association. From the ATA website, "Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients' health status. Closely associated with telemedicine is the term 'telehealth,' which is often used to encompass a broader definition of remote healthcare that does not always involve clinical services." ref. http://www.atmeda.org Blakehd (talk) 19:55, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

One problem with these terms is the question "what vested interests are pushing for one term versus another?" The goal of the service is to provide patients with truly beneficial services which cannot be obtained locally. (Local provision of services, where available, is arguably always better because of the exchange of subtle information within a face-to-face visit.) So, as this growing opportunity struggles to define itself and its opportunities it is critical that it does not become the latest venue for technological "snake oil". The key to all of this is making sure this proceeds as a venue for exchange of objective information. Should this fail then payors will quickly find authority to deny payment and the arena will succumb to its abusers.67.166.66.11 (talk) 13:56, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Agree these should be merged - telehealth is now generally accepted as the "umbrella" definition for the application of technology to healthcare. It may include distance medical education, online public health initiatives, electronic healthcare administration, and telemedicine. The term "telemedicine" generally means the use of technology to provide clinical care at a distance. Telemental health, teleradiology, telepsychiatry, etc are just ways of deliniating which medical specialty is making use of technology to provide clinical care at a distance. For some helpful definitions, see HRSA's (within HHS) definition of "telehealth" - http://www.hrsa.gov/telehealth/ - and CMS's definition of "telemedicine" - http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Telemedicine/. State medical boards and legislatures are also getting in the act now, and are viewing "telemedicine" as being the practice of medicine at a distance, quite distinct from the other activities that can be considered "telehealth." For example, see Colorado CRSA 12-36-106 (defining the practice of medicine); Florida FSA 456.065 (unlicensed practice of medicine); New Mexico statute 61-6-11.1 (Telemedicine license); Ohio RC 4731.296 (Telemedicine certificate); Texas Occupations Code Title 3, Subtitle A, Chapter 111 (Telemedicine and Telehealth); and Texas Medical Board Rules Chapter 174 (Telemedicine) and 172.12 (Telemedicine License). 63.139.143.54 (talk) 18:50, 25 June 2009 (UTC)Harland Westgate, 25 June 2009

As these articles are 8K and 12K with a fair amount of content overlap, I favor merger. There is no one predominant definition (and if legislatures are at work, there will be many) that splits them cleanly and they are emerging fields, so it will probably be a while. As the field grows, there will be well-defined entities that will merit being broken off. For now, getting things together under one umbrella seems the best way to go. Even though I prefer the term telemedine, I think telehealth is probably the better unbrella term.Novangelis (talk) 21:42, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Propose merging eHealth
At present, eHealth is little more that a collection of definitions. It can probably be merged into this article with a fair amount of ease.Novangelis (talk) 18:33, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Telehealth and e-health are clearly closely related. However, I don't think they are quite the same. They represent terms connected to different technologies, approaches and periods of development. So, I don't think a merger is the right way forward. Bondegezou (talk) 19:38, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Disagree with merger. The eHealth article was longer but was trimmed by another editor, I've been planning on beefing it up again. It is different than telehealth, which focuses on use of remote communications in healthcare. eHealth is much broader, and includes a number of technologies and approaches beyond telehealth. In fact some might argue that telehealth is a subset or specific area within the broader area of eHealth. --Karl.brown (talk) 17:42, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Unless there are versions I missed, there is nothing but definitions (Wikipedia is not a dictionary). If it's not an article on its own, it would seem logical to preserve the terminology in the best related article.  Compare to mHealth which is a substantial article. Don't you think that with so many overlapping definitions, keeping a collection of definitions isolated from content will create confusion? Merging is not terminal. This is a rapidly growing field.  When there is enough content, individual subjects will get their due. Novangelis (talk) 18:32, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I actually created the mHealth article and have been encouraging people in my network to contribute to it - it is also a growing and new field and thus a lot of energy has been generated around it. As for eHealth, take a look at this version: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=EHealth&oldid=261190659 - as you can see there used to be more content, and there is room for much more. eHealth is a widely accepted terminology for the use of information technology in health - many european countries for example have eHealth strategies. The closest term is not telehealth, but health informatics, so if eHealth was merged it should be merged into that article, but since these terms evolved separately and are used in distinct ways in the literature I still think the eHealth article has a reason to exist on its own. See here for literature backup on the definition of eHealth (this citation used to be part of the eHealth article I think: http://www.jmir.org/2005/1/e1/ --Karl.brown (talk) 20:26, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That best version is still just definitions and links. The external link you referred me to underscores the mutability of terminology. While health informatics might be a better target, the fundamental problem — content scattered across underdeveloped articles — remains. Without unique content or even a clear definition of the subject, this article should become either a redirect or a disambiguation and the existing work moved to an article with solid content and development. You know your stuff and you care about the content that is languishing here. What can you propose as an alternative?Novangelis (talk) 21:02, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I say lets give the other editors time to comment on this proposed merger. If the merger is declined (which I suspect it will be, as the terms really are different), then in the next few months I'll work on adding content to the eHealth article - based on the research available in the literature around ehealth and its distinction from health informatics (many in health informatics will tell you they do not do eHealth). I just dont have time for deep editing now, but hopefully others can help. --Karl.brown (talk) 23:15, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with Karl. eHealth is definitely not a component of Telemedicine and should not be merged. It is a larger encompassing topic which as outlined in the page, incorporates several related topics. Given the focus on the term eHealth recently, and the important distinction between eHealth, Telemedicine, Teleconsultation, mHealth, etc. I would suggest keeping it separate. I'd like to see Karl's addition to the page, of course. Askanter (talk) 20:52, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Links to Nuview Health
I would object to links being continually added to Nuview health by user Bmludwig, as that page, which was created by him, has already been speedily deleted as spam. Kittensandrainbows (talk) 14:54, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I deleted the merge tag
I deleted the merge tag suggesting a merge to Telemedicine. There has been a lot of discussion on this on both pages, all going nowhere. The tag has been there since April 2008. Due to formatting of the comments, it's not even easy to tell what people's opinions are on whether to merge. If someone wishes to restart a merge discussion, please do so below, and put Merge or Don't Merge in bold so future users can clearly see people's opinions. D O N D E groovily  Talk to me  02:50, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Telemedicine and eHealth be merged into this article. The actual content of the articles overlaps a great deal; this term is slightly broader, so this is the preferred target in my view. Jytdog (talk) 00:31, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

Merge polling
Merge I favor a merge. In the above discussion, I count 4 in favor of a merge versus a couple ambiguous comments and one against. Even if telemedicine is distinct, I think it can live as a subsection of telehealth. Also, there's a comment at Talk:Telemedicine#Definition_of_Telemedicine where an author of a textbook says they used the terms interchangeably. II | (t - c) 01:45, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Support merge These are the same concept. Above, from years ago, I see that, , , , supported a merge, , , and  commented without talking about a merge. At this point all of these users have not made an edit in years. At the telemedicine talk page,  said that telemedicine is a type of telehealth and an IP said that telemedicine and telehealth are as different as medicine and health. My opinion on all of this is that it is supporting evidence that both articles are messes, and if someone wanted to merge and cleanup them up then it would not be unreasonable, but also it remains an option that even if there is a merge there could be two or more articles if someone actually found sources and definitions which differentiated the concepts. Category:Telehealth and Category:Telemedicine have about 50 articles which are subtopics of this broader concept. I think it is reasonable to have a high-level overview in one of these names which covers everything but then sends people out to sub-articles.   Blue Rasberry   (talk)  14:25, 29 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Support merge as they are the same. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 03:02, 14 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Support merge One authoritative article makes sense since telehealth is the broader term under which telemedicine exists. ADAButler  (talk · contribs · email) 12:04, 15 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Comment Looks like consensus was achived and the merge could be performed. Since this looks like a quite large merge I believe it would be best if someone knowledgeable on the subject perform the merge. Tagging and  who engaged in this conversation previously and are active members of wikiproject medicine. If none of you want to do the merger I may be able to do it.Trialpears (talk) 15:47, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I still support but am unable to make time to do the merge anytime soon.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  14:35, 22 April 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 06:46, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Effect of Covid pandemic
I think it would be interesting and useful to add some information on the greatly increased use of telemedicine since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic about March 2020. My undocumented impression is that many doctors who refused telephone or computer appointments in the past, at least where I live, are now insisting on them in order to avoid spreading Covid. However it would be good to have some properly sourced information and analysis of the past and present situation. Dirac66 (talk) 16:40, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

Propose changes to the developing countries section
I will add subsections under "developing countries" to talk about the potential (and challenges) of telehealth in developing countries, and also about ways some organizations are helping developing countries with internet access for consultations.Thomas Simbo K. (talk) 07:04, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

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Copied page to my personal sandbox
adding information about the future of telehealth JudyEditor2 (talk) 15:17, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

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