Open AccessImplementation and Experiences of Telehealth: Balancing Policies With Practice in Countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union
Author(s) -
Oommen John,
Suptendra Nath Sarbadhikari,
Thanga Prabhu,
Ashvini Goel,
Alexander R. Thomas,
Sunil Shroff,
Fazilah Allaudin,
Chaminda Weerabaddana,
Dari Alhuwail,
Udaya Koirala,
Jayalal Johnrose,
Patricia Codyre,
Andy Bleaden,
Shubnum Singh,
Shuchin Bajaj
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
interactive journal of medical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1929-073X
DOI - 10.2196/30755
Subject(s) - telehealth , confidentiality , government (linguistics) , psychological intervention , public relations , european union , business , political science , scale (ratio) , economic growth , health care , medicine , telemedicine , nursing , economics , international trade , linguistics , philosophy , law , physics , quantum mechanics
This viewpoint summarizes the discussion that occurred during the “Translating Policy to Practice in Telehealth–Lessons from Global Implementation Experiences” panel that was held virtually at Telemedicon2020, December 18-20, 2020. This panel brought together policy and implementation experts from some countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union to share their experiences in the development and implementation of telehealth standards and of the scale up of telehealth interventions within health systems. Several common themes arose from the discussion, including the significant role of people; encouragement by respective government policymakers; addressing concerns, particularly related to privacy, confidentiality, and security; and capacity building of human resources. These are discussed in turn, along with the future directions identified by the panelists, which emphasized the need for active encouragement toward the adoption and diffusion of digital health in general and of telehealth in particular. All stakeholders, ranging from governmental policymakers to common citizens, need to come together to build trusting partnerships to realize the advantages offered by telehealth.