UW Medicine will establish a telehealth consultation center for mental health and substance abuse patients as part of the Seattle-based health system's $225 million UW Medicine Behavioral Health Teaching Facility.

While telehealth and remote patient monitoring can improve rural individuals' access to healthcare, these virtual care services are "very much dependent" on broadband internet access, according to Karen Rheuban, MD, director of Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Center for Telehealth. 

The Veterans Health Administration 2016 telehealth initiative to distribute video-enabled tablets to veterans with mental healthcare access barriers appears to have increased overall continuity of mental health services, according to a recent study published in Psychiatry Online.

Humana is testing a virtual care app with its Medicare Advantage members, according to a Sept. 17 news release.

Texas Health Aetna, a health plan jointly owned by Texas Health Resources and Aetna, will begin offering more than 100,000 Northern Texas-based members free behavioral health services through its virtual care platform.

Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, N.M., recently acquired telemedicine neurology equipment to diagnose a stroke more quickly in emergency department patients, Silver City Daily Press reports. 

A San Diego-based physician who received a heart transplant in 2017 now treats patients through telemedicine after he was restricted from providing in-person care, local ABC affiliate KGTV reports.

York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health deployed its new digital urgent care clinic for patients to access entirely online, local CBS affiliate WHP-TV reports.

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Research Institute center was awarded $500,000 from the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans' Assistance to help expand mental telehealth treatment.

PatientSafe Solutions recently announced their release of new functionalities within the PatientTouch Clinical Communication platform that enhances Physician privacy and on call schedule capabilities. 

Cleveland Clinic launched its first telehealth-equipped neurology step down unit to support constant monitoring of epilepsy and stroke patients' brain activity.

Covenant Health Plainview in Texas implemented a two-way audio and video device that allows clinicians to continually monitor patients who require more constant watch, according to My Plainview.

University of Pittsburgh researchers developed a blood pressure home-monitoring program to more quickly detect hypertension levels of postpartum women.

At Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, telehealth isn't delineated by technology. It's simply a way to deliver care.  

Here are nine hospitals and health systems that implemented telehealth technology and services in August:

Lafayette (La.) General Health released its new mobile telehealth app Sept. 4, according to the Advocate.

West Virginia University Medicine in Morgantown is preparing to deploy a telehealth pilot program in November that aims to use video conferencing technology to connect nurses with rural patients who have long-term care conditions, WVNews reports.

Jonathan Bandel, is assistant vice president of strategic service lines at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital.

IBM Watson Health and the American Telemedicine Association collaborated to conclude that higher performing hospitals or more likely to use telehealth. 

Planned Parenthood announced Sept. 4 that its mobile application Planned Parenthood Direct, which offers birth control and urinary tract infection treatment, will be offered in all 50 states by 2020.