Telehealth

Current Projects

• Rural/Urban Differences in Forgoing Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  Several surveys conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that adults delayed or skipped healthcare services during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines changes in healthcare utilization for primary and preventative care among rural and urban Medicare fee-for-service enrollees since the COVID-19 pandemic.
  Research center: ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Aging, Care management, Chronic diseases and conditions, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Diabetes, Health promotion and disease prevention, Health services, Medicare, Mental and behavioral health, Telehealth
  
• Strengthening Interoperability for Rural Hospitals: The Role of TEFCA
  The digital divide between rural and urban hospitals (a gap in adoption and use of robust IT tools to support care delivery) has narrowed considerably in recent years. And yet, hospitals in rural communities are still struggling with access to and routine use of interoperable health information exchange (HIE) capabilities. The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is the federal policy solution to offering all health care organizations an on-ramp to interoperable HIE, particularly entities that lack other vendor-specific alternatives. This project seeks to describe rates of TEFCA participation among Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other rurally-located hospitals, and characterize whether and how reported barriers to interoperability vary based on TEFCA participation.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Health information technology, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Telehealth, Workforce