Telemedicine Commons^™

Assessing Current Telehealth Mobile Applications In The United States: Accessibility, Privacy, And Care Delivery, Rosemary K. Frugé

Honors Theses

Telehealth has improved patient access by reducing barriers to convenient, cost-effective, and quality health care. Telehealth mobile applications allow individuals to remotely access services through smartphone-based platforms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate leading telehealth applications available in the United States, analyzing key factors that influence platform selection, including cost, prescribing and diagnostic capabilities, user feedback, and data privacy practices. Applications were identified through keyword-based searches of major app stores using the term “telehealth,” and each app was systematically evaluated using predefined criteria. Findings highlight variability across platforms in pricing transparency, service offerings, and privacy disclosures, despite generally …

Telemedicine Kiosks: Can Technology Solve Rural Mississippi's Healthcare Crisis?, Babu George, Martha Ravola

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Background: Mississippi’s rural counties face hospital gaps, clinician shortages, and limited broadband/device access that collectively delay care and constrain telehealth uptake.

Purpose: This paper assesses whether telemedicine kiosks can improve rural healthcare access in Mississippi while also supporting viable local entrepreneurship and community development.

Methods: A conceptual, policy-and-market analysis integrated narrative literature synthesis, secondary data and policy review, and 5-year financial modeling under two cost-allocation scenarios: an Operator Model (subscription fees covered by partners/grants) and a Network Model (subscription fees borne by the kiosk operator).

Results: Kiosks with embedded connectivity and diagnostic peripherals can deliver device-independent virtual care and directly …

Striving To Thrive: Balancing Digital Health Innovation And Patient Protection Under Thailand’S Legal Framework, Thidarat Liamsomboon

Theses and Dissertations

The digitalization of health care has fundamentally transformed how health care services are accessed, delivered, and experienced worldwide. Telemedicine, artificial intelligence–assisted diagnostics, electronic health records, wearables, and mobile health applications are no longer novelties, but have become a substantial part of a modern clinical practice. Although these technologies offer great prospects for making health care more accessible, reducing administrative burden, and improving the quality of care, they also pose significant legal and regulatory challenges. The rate of technological development has far outpaced Thailand’s existing legal frameworks for regulating medical practice, professional accountability, and patient protection. This regulatory “lag” has generated …

Implementation And Outcomes Of A Digital Onboarding Taskforce In The Acute Care Setting, Julianna Lenoir, Alexzandra Gentsch, Akshay Krishnan, Jeffrey Ndubisi, Marissa Witmer, Kristin L. Rising, Brooke Worster, Angela M. Gerolamo

Jefferson Center for Connected Care Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Use of digital health technology can improve patient health outcomes; however, not all patients have the knowledge and skills to download a health app and access a patient portal. Providing digital onboarding support to hospitalized patients has potential to overcome some barriers to accessing needed education in the community, including both having the time and a location to receive education. To address this, our team developed the Jefferson Digital Onboarding Taskforce (JeffDOT), a group of staff and students who approach hospitalized patients and provide one-on-one teaching on how to sign up for and use a patient portal.

METHODS AND …

Rapid Access Chest Pain Assessment Clinic: An Australian Virtual Care Experience, Marwan Shawki, Thalys Sampaio Rodrigues, Hussein Al-Fiadh, Karen Sanders Mnursing, Ali H. Al-Fiadh

Journal of the Saudi Heart Association

Background: The Rapid Access Chest Pain Assessment Clinic (RACPAC) streamlines the evaluation of low to intermediate-risk chest pain patients, reducing hospitalisation and healthcare costs. However, there is limited data on the virtual model of care for RACPAC.

Aim: We sought to evaluate the structure, cost-effectiveness, and imaging modalities performance of face-to-face and virtual RACPAC in an Australian setting.

Methods:A retrospective analysis of patients attending the RACPAC within a large Australian quaternary hospital between 2012 and 2021. We described the clinic parameters and imaging modality utilisation with parametric and non-parametric descriptive statics. Patterns of diagnostic modality utilisation were assessed with …

Icanfeel: A Digital Art Activity To Support Distress Detection In Adult Oncological Patients, Marie J. Deschamps

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Considered the 6th vital sign, distress, a combination of hopelessness, anxiety, fear, and depression, can impact patients’ quality of life, treatment adherence, and mortality. While screening is required in oncological centers, distress remains under-detected. This study examined the use of Icanfeel, a novel digital art-based tool, to complement traditional psychometric assessments such as Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), to support patients’ expressions of symptoms and distress detection. Hospitalized adult oncological patients (N = 22) engaged twice with Icanfeel and with an active control condition. At various time points during the protocol, patients self-reported symptom burden using ESAS, self-disclosure …

Gut Feeling: A Holistic Digital Tool For Managing Irritable Bowel Syndrome And Food Sensitivities, Hailey M. Olberding

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and food intolerances are increasingly prevalent chronic gastrointestinal (GI) conditions that significantly impair quality of life. While the low-Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols (FODMAP) diet has demonstrated success in symptom management, current digital tools fail to offer integrated, user-friendly platforms that holistically track contributing health factors. Gut Feeling is a mobile app (Appendix 1) and complementary website (Appendix 2) developed to fill this gap. By incorporating symptom logging, food intake tracking and complementary database, stress and sleep monitoring, and trend analysis, this platform empowers users to better understand their bodies and manage GI symptoms proactively. …

Barriers To Telehealth Uptake And Use: A Scoping Review, Mackenzie Kemp, Kristin L. Rising, Gregory Laynor, Jessica Miao, Brooke Worster, Anna Marie Chang, Andrew J. Monick, Amanda Guth, Tracy Esteves Camacho, Kiana Mcintosh, Grace Amadio, Lindsey Shughart, Tingann Hsiao, Amy E. Leader

Jefferson Center for Connected Care Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a scoping review to identify barriers to telehealth use and uptake from the perspective of patient, provider, and system that were documented in the literature. In addition to identifying and categorizing the barriers, we aimed to assess how barriers differed for studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how barriers differed between the United States vs internationally based studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Comprehensive searches of the PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Scopus databases conducted on December 29, 2021 yielded 17 887 results, with 11 221 potentially eligible documents after duplicates were removed. The team conducted an initial …

Development And Preliminary Validation Of A Screener For Digital Health Readiness, Kristin Rising, Amanda Guth, Alexzandra Gentsch, Karla Martin Gonzalez, Richard Hass, Lindsey Shughart, Serena Gelfer, Megan Mcvane, Brooke Worster, Amy Leader

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: While telehealth use has grown, patient uptake is variable, which has the potential to increase health disparities. Identifying and understanding individuals' barriers to digital health readiness can help health systems efficiently deploy resources to provide personalized patient-centered support.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate an instrument to evaluate digital health readiness to identify and quantify barriers to digital readiness.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this qualitative mixed-methods study conducted from April 26, 2022, to June 8, 2023, the instrument was created in 4 phases. Patients and health care professionals were interviewed to explore barriers to telehealth use, scale items were …

Expanding A Behavioral View On Digital Health Access: Drivers And Strategies To Promote Equity, Maura M. Kepper, Lauren A. Fowler, Isabelle S. Kusters, Jean W. Davis, Manal Baqer, Sarah Sagui-Henson, Yunyu Xiao, Adati Tarfa, Jean C. Yi, Bryan Gibson, Kristin E. Heron, Nicole M. Alberts, Marissa Burgermaster, Veronica Njie-Carr, Lisa M. Klesges

Psychology Faculty Publications

The potential and threat of digital tools to achieve health equity has been highlighted for over a decade, but the success of achieving equitable access to health technologies remains challenging. Our paper addresses renewed concerns regarding equity in digital health access that were deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our viewpoint is that (1) digital health tools have the potential to improve health equity if equitable access is achieved, and (2) improving access and equity in digital health can be strengthened by considering behavioral science-based strategies embedded in all phases of tool development. Using behavioral, equity, and access frameworks allowed for …

Taking A Load Off: User Perceptions Of Smart Offloading Walkers For Diabetic Foot Ulcers Using The Technology Acceptance Model, M G Finco, Gozde Cay, Myeounggon Lee, Jason Garcia, Elia Salazar, Tze-Woei Tan, David G Armstrong, Bijan Najafi

Center on Aging Staff Publications

People with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are commonly prescribed offloading walkers, but inadequate adherence to prescribed use can be a barrier to ulcer healing. This study examined user perspectives of offloading walkers to provide insight on ways to help promote adherence. Participants were randomized to wear: (1) irremovable, (2) removable, or (3) smart removable walkers (smart boot) that provided feedback on adherence and daily walking. Participants completed a 15-item questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Spearman correlations assessed associations between TAM ratings with participant characteristics. Chi-squared tests compared TAM ratings between ethnicities, as well as 12-month retrospective fall …

The Role Of Telehealth In Enabling Sustainable Innovation And Circular Economies In Health, Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos, Paul Barach

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Digital health interventions including telehealth support an increasingly broad range of improvement goals for prevention and treatment. Limitations obstructing the many digital benefits of telehealth from reaching their full potential include lack of robust usability and user centered design, regulatory policy paradigms, lack of adequate high-quality evidence and methodologies to evaluate the performance generalization and clinical robustness. Health innovation is explored in the context of different value systems and a solution is proposed to the fundamental limitations arising in the data value system, an approach to a new telehealth paradigm and incorporated intervention designs which combine clinical innovation with innovation …

Dyadic Digital Health Interventions: Their Rationale And Implementation, Kelly M. Shaffer, Lindsay S. Mayberry, Emily Georgia Salivar, Brian D. Doss, Amanda M. Lewis, Kimberly Canter

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

While most psychosocial and behavioral digital health interventions have been designed to be consumed by an individual, intervening at the level of a dyad – two interdependent individuals – can more comprehensively address the needs of both individuals and their relationship. The clinical utility of the dyadic digital health intervention approach, as well as the practical implementation of this design, will be demonstrated via three examples: eSCCIP, FAMS, and OurRelationship.

The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: Use Of Digital Technology In Clinical Nutrition, Berkeley K. Limketkai, Kasuen Mauldin, Natalie Manitius, Laleh Jalilian, Bradley R. Salonen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Purpose of review

Computing advances over the decades have catalyzed the pervasive integration of digital technology in the medical industry, now followed by similar applications for clinical nutrition. This review discusses the implementation of such technologies for nutrition, ranging from the use of mobile apps and wearable technologies to the development of decision support tools for parenteral nutrition and use of telehealth for remote assessment of nutrition.

Recent findings

Mobile applications and wearable technologies have provided opportunities for real-time collection of granular nutrition-related data. Machine learning has allowed for more complex analyses of the increasing volume of data collected. The …

Comparison Of Patient Satisfaction With Telehealth And In-Clinic Post-Operative Visits, Lillian Matthews, Bryan Renslo, Deborah T. Glassman, Md

Phase 1

Introduction: Telehealth has grown rapidly in the healthcare industry as a time efficient, affordable, and accessible means to provide care. Jefferson’s Department of Urology currently employs telehealth for post-operative visits but its efficacy in post-nephrectomy patients has not been well studied. We aim to demonstrate that patient satisfaction is the same for telehealth versus in-clinic post-operative visits in nephrectomy patients. Secondarily we will examine distance saved for telehealth patients.

Methods: We will administer an IRB approved questionnaire to all nephrectomy patients via the EPIC^® EMR platform after their post-operative visit. Each questionnaire will be specific to telehealth or …

Comparison Of Patient Satisfaction Between Telehealth And In-Clinic Post-Operative Visits, Bryan Renslo, Lillian Matthews, Deborah T. Glassman, Md

Phase 1

Introduction: Telehealth has the potential to be an efficient, affordable, and accessible means to give care. In the field of Urology, its use has large potential but has not been well studied. We hypothesize that the use of telehealth for post-op nephrectomy patients will maintain the same level of patient satisfaction. We also hypothesize that telehealth visits will take less time and save patients money by eliminating the need to travel.

Methods: From May through July 2019, post-nephrectomy patients who consented to the study were given either a telehealth or in-clinic post-operative visit. Outcome metrics and demographics information were obtained …

Determining A Clinical Role For Digital Apps For Mental Health, Hephsibah Loeb, Md, Ann Chandy, Md

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Posters

In 2017, the FDA approved the first app for treatment of alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and stimulant use disorders. In a preceding randomized controlled trial, mobile software Therapeutic Education System (TES) was found to reduce dropout from treatment and to increase patients’ rates of abstinence from substance abuse. Another study showed that PRIME-D, a mobile-based treatment for depression, positively affected symptoms of depression and disability. Many individuals seek out self-help apps for psychiatric complaints, although, in general, little evidence exists for evaluation of the most accessible mobile apps for self-help. What are the strengths and weaknesses of digital apps for treatment …