ATA Releases Telehealth Interoperability White Paper

The ATA telehealth association recently released a comprehensive industry white paper, “Telehealth Interoperability: Driving Choice, Continuity, and Scale.” The white paper defines and describes the value of interoperable telehealth systems, addresses the opportunities and challenges for stakeholders, discusses standards and the importance of governance and workflows for successful implementation, and presents a path forward and best practices for health systems to follow in implementing telehealth programs. The paper is available for download here.

“Interoperability of telemedicine will define its future,” said Dr. Andrew Watson, president, ATA and VP, Clinical Information Technology Transformation, UPMC. “In the era of value-based care, understanding data and how telehealth relates to the frontline care systems of both payers and providers is critical. For telehealth to be relevant—and even to be a frontline system itself—it must be interoperable for ease of use, cost of integration, security, and patient/member identification. This important interoperability initiative governs much of the promise for the future of telemedicine.”

The ATA white paper reportedly is a result of an ongoing interoperability initiative that has brought together key stakeholders from health systems, payers, and telehealth vendors. Contributors include Mike Baird, American Well; Richard Bakalar, M.D., ViTel Net; Wendy Deibert, The VirtualEngine; John Glaser, Cerner; Ryan Howells, Leavitt Partners and CARIN Alliance; Allen Izadpanah, ViTel Net; Rachana Jain, Humana; Rob Kolodner, M.D., ViTel Net; Deanna Larson, Avera eCare; Lew Levy, M.D., Teladoc Health; Dan Munro, journalist/writer; Mark Noble, ViTel Net; Karen Rheuban, M.D., UVA; Don Rucker, M.D.,ONC; Carla Smith, consultant; David Smith, Third Horizon Strategies; Nina Solenski, M.D., University of Virginia Medical School; Robert Wah, M.D., DXC; and Andrew Watson, M.D., UPMC.