What is Telehealth?

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The Office of Telehealth Services uses health informatics, disease management and telehealth technologies to target care and case management to improve access to care, improving the health of veterans. Telehealth changes the location where health care services are routinely provided.

The value VA derives from telehealth is not in implementing telehealth technologies alone, but how VA uses health informatics, disease management and telehealth technologies to target care/case management thereby facilitating access to care and improving the health of veterans.

It's Not About The Technology 

New technologies such as telehealth help improve health care services. For technology to work it must work for the people it is meant to help - patients and the professionals providing care. Telehealth in VA helps ensure veteran patients get the right care in the right place at the right time and aims to make the home into the preferred place of care, whenever possible. If the home, or place of residence, is going to be the preferred site of care the caregiver in the home and caregiver support in the local community becomes ever more important. The person who is usually there to deal with the fears and frustrations of the patient as they cope with their illness each day, transport them to the clinics and provide personal care is the caregiver in the home.

Videos

Be sure to watch our Office of Telehealth Services videos. They do a great job of explaining Telehealth programs and how they can provide better access to Veterans.

• VA Telehealth; Real-Time Access to Care
• My Life, My Health, My Choices