2018 Telemedicine In Indiana Report

Abstract

Telemedicine: What is it? Telemedicine is a 21st Century approach to delivering health care and addressing health workforce shortages. It involves the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology (video, picture, voice, etc.). It has been defined as “the practice of medicine using technology to deliver care at a distance. It occurs using telecommunications infrastructure between a patient (at an origination or spoke site) and a physician or other practitioner licensed to practice medicine (at a distant or hub site).” Telemedicine in Indiana: In Indiana, physicians who offer telemedicine services are held to the same standards as a physician providing in-person health care services. In addition to holding a medical license, Indiana has a certification for telemedicine providers, administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA); however, physicians who predominately practice within Indiana are not required to file this certification . There are currently 226 physicians reported to hold this telemedicine certification . As of the 2017 medical license renewal period, 1,394 of Indiana’s licensed physicians (808 excluding those that reported radiology as their specialty) reported delivering care through telemedicine services. The purpose of this report is to describe characteristics of Indiana physicians that self-reported being engaged in providing telemedicine services in order to inform current and future related efforts. The data presented here are a subset from the 2017 Physician Licensure Survey Data Report .