Telemedicine has the potential for tremendous impact on accessibility, quality, and cost of healthcare – affordable care anywhere and anytime. Continued advancement and application of telemedicine is, however, dependent on implementation of appropriate technical, clinical, and administrative guidelines. The American Telemedicine Association and its members have defined five initial use case/clinical application priorities: teledermatology, home telehealth, telemental health, ocular telehealth and telepathology. In order to advance these applications of telemedicine and to accelerate their acceptance, there must be an action plan to address the technical and standards issues.

You are invited to be a part of a workshop to:

• Learn about the current status and progress of numerous Federal agencies in development of standards and guidelines and Federal requirements for these telemedicine priorities;
• Hear from the telemedicine community – clinicians, academicians, consortia, organizations, and vendors – about gaps, technical barriers and future needs for standards and guidelines; and,
• Chart a path for future public-private partnerships to foster continued collaboration and success.

This one-day workshop is designed for anyone interested in these topics, and is open to all. It will also be a valuable extension for those attending the American Telemedicine’s 8 th Annual December Industry Briefing (December 11-12, 2006, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC), which will focus on Federal funding opportunities and what standards and guidelines mean, in particular from the view of the current special interest groups. The following NIST/ATA/NLM workshop on December 13 th will allow participants to hear about and discuss: current status of standards, guidelines, and interoperability; where progress is headed; what gaps are perceived; what are the technical barriers; and participate in the development of an action plan.

Who should attend?

• Healthcare providers
• Technology and telecommunications company researchers and developers
• Academicians and representatives from academic medical centers
• Representatives of interested medical societies, professional organizations and consortia
• Researchers in e-health
• Government agency representatives
• Vendors
• Standards development organizations
• Consumers

Expected outcomes include:

• A summary of the current status of telemedicine standards and guidelines from both the federal and industry perspectives
• An understanding of key players
• An action plan for next steps to implement the vision and unleash the potential of telemedicine.

Information Technology Laboratory
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Date created: 11/14/2006
Last updated: 11/27/2006