Telehealth

The Federal Communications Commission on March 16 selected the fourth and final set of  projects for its Connected Care Pilot Program, awarding nearly $30 million to 16 providers.

Telehealth continued to account for over one-third of mental health and substance use outpatient care visits more than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a March 15 analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Fifty-one percent of clinicians said telehealth negatively affects their ability to demonstrate empathy with patients, according to a report released March 15 by analytics firm Elsevier Health.

Verizon is expanding the BlueJeans Telehealth platform it launched in 2021. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is transitioning to its new 988 call number in July, but there are concerns that funding might not meet the expected increased demand, according to a March 13 article from The New York Times. 

Congress passed the omnibus spending bill that expanded coverage of telehealth services, but experts fear that the bill failed to detail which telehealth services would be covered by insurers, FastCompany reported March 12.

Integrating with Cerner's EHR to collect patient information from virtual visits, Microsoft's new features in Teams aim to provide a simpler and convenient experience for patients and providers for telehealth workflows.

Researchers at Utah State University are using Zoom therapy sessions to study the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for adolescents suffering from health anxiety. 

The World Health Organization has reccomended the use of telemedicine for abortion pill prescriptions.

Telepsychiatry app Cerebral has grown explosively during the pandemic, but 27 former employees said the company could be fueling a new addiction crisis, according to a March 11 Bloomberg report.