Telehealth offers great promise to transform the healthcare delivery system by overcoming geographical distance, enhancing access to care, and building efficiencies.

HIMSS18 will feature sessions that cover this trend from all angles, examining technological advances, regulatory impacts, implementation strategies, case studies and much more.

Here is our roundup of telehealth sessions at HIMSS18:

A Framework to Support Measure Development for Telehealth

The National Quality Forum, as charged by Health and Human Services, created a framework that serves as a foundation new measures to ensure that providers deliver quality care via telehealth tools. Speakers from the NQF and Thomas Jefferson University will share details.
Speakers: Jason Goldwater, Senior Director, National Quality Forum; Judd Hollander, Senior Vice President, Healthcare Delivery Innovation, Thomas Jefferson University
When: 8:30-9:30 a.m. March 6
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Human Factors and Workforce Solutions to Connected Care

Experts will share an update on “Healthcare Without Walls.” The project was designed to identify the human factor and workforce challenges caused by digital health, telehealth, remote monitoring, artificial intelligence, and cognitive computing.
Speakers: Susan Dentzer, President and CEO, Network For Excellence In Health Innovation; Carla Smith, Executive Vice President, HIMSS North America
When: 1-2 p.m. March 6
Where: Venetian Galileo 904

NYP OnDemand: The Next Generation of Care Delivery

What’s the recipe for a successful care delivery program powered by telehealth? With its NYP OnDemand program, NewYork Presbyterian found it to be a mix of five percent technology, 15 percent process and 80 percent people. During this session, NYP officials will share insights and lessons learned, an analysis of the future needs their patient community will face and a look at how they are modifying their telemedicine framework accordingly. 
Speaker: Shauna Coyne, Manager of IT Innovation, New York Presbyterian Hospital
When: 2:30-3:30 p.m. March 6
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Behavioral Health: A Launchpad for Enterprise Telehealth

Mass General Hospital made a major impact by concentrating telehalth efforts on one service line: behavioral health. Officials will discuss how it crafted an initial strategy and adopts it to keep pace with changing regulations, including a look at legal considerations and new NQF guidelines, as well as how it is using telehealth tools to reach patients off the coast of Massachusetts.
Speakers: Nathaniel Lacktman, Partner and Chair of Telemedicine and Virtual Care Practice, Foley & Lardner; Sarah Sossong, Director, Center for TeleHealth, Massachusetts General Hospital
When: 4-5 p.m. March 6
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Solutions, Strategies and Success: How Can Telemedicine Help?

This thought-provoking session will offer a deep dive into how one hospital system harnessed telehealth technologies to improve care quality and lower costs by establishing collaborative care teams and forging new partnerships outside its own walls, including a look at challenges and opportunities telemedicine presents.
Speaker: Deanna Larson, CEO, Avera eCARE, Avera Health
When: 8:30-9:30 a.m. March 7
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

 Fall Prevention and Fire Departments

The Phoenix Veterans Affairs has a unique arrangement with local fire departments to apply intelligence to identify vets at risk of falling and, in turn, mitigate that risk with telehealth tools.  The solutions includes a dashboard based on multiple factors that stratify patients with a scoring system. The speakers said the findings can serve as a model for other providers when treating high-risk subgroups.
Speaker: Andrew Muth, Clinical Informatics Fellow, The University of Arizona
When: 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. March 7
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Connected Care: VA, Virtual Health and the Patient Experience

The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated delivery system in America has been deploying telemedicine and connected health technologies for years. This session concentrates on the next steps in Vas digital transformation strategy: integrating mobile, telehealth and electronic health record tools to improve patient experience and care coordination.
Speakers: Neil Evans, Chief Officer, Office of Connected Care, Department of Veterans Affairs
When: 1-2 p.m. March 7
Where: Venetian Delfino 4002

The Power of Health IT – Predict, Prevent, Innovate

The continuum of care is peppered with many new technologies, from connected mobile carts, IV pumps and bed sensors to telehealth, hospitals have to manage and Internet of Things devices more and more frequently. Speakers will outline common mistakes, advice about how to avoid them, and generally discuss how hospitals can use the tools to enhance experience for patients, clinicians and operations.
Speakers: Gary Horn, CTO & CISO, Advocate Health Care; Tom Bradicich, Vice President of Servers and IoT Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
When: 4-5 p.m. March 7
Where: Venetian Lando 4301

Chat with a Doctor: On-Demand, Asynchronous Physician Advice

Kaiser Permanente Colorado created Chat with a Doctor in 2016 and the service, which enables members to connect with doctors via instant messaging, has since grown in volume. KP Colorado, in fact, has specialized channels for pediatrics, OBGYN and pharmacy. The platform enables doctors to conduct chats with multiple patients at the same time, which makes the platform a time saving and cost-effective means for achieving resolutions. 
Speaker: Ari Melmed, Medical Director, Kaiser Permanente Colorado
When: 4-5 p.m. March 7
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Designing From the Inside Out: Taking a Strategic Approach

Telehealth is already a critical component to the future of care at Northwell Health. This session will delve into Northwell’s strategy and internal program for tapping telehealth across its 18 New York hospitals, beginning with a readiness assessment, identifying the pieces such a plan requires and, ultimately, crafting a long-term strategy.
Speakers: Iris Berman, Vice President, Telehealth Services, Northwell Health
When: 8:30-9:30 a.m. March 8
Where: Venetian Sands Showroom

Create and Scale a Joint Telehealth Support Model with Vendors

Mayo Clinic will share details of its work scaling telehealth across a multi-site health system. This session will include a look at new ways of working with vendors to connect existing tools and care services by creating models to help clinicians use the tools with Mayo’s knowledge and resources, as well as a look at Mayo’s systematic approach to insourcing and outsourcing its support structure.
Speakers: Sue Kapraun, IT Service Delivery Manager, Mayo Clinic; Jenna Beck, Health Systems Engineer, Mayo Clinic
When: 1-2 p.m. March 8
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Telehealth on the Hill: How Policy Is Ushering Change

American Well chief executive Roy Schoenberg will shed light on the latest policy moves and ways they can change how hospitals use telehealth, interact with patients and what they need to know about reimbursement.
Speaker: Roy Schoenberg, CEO, American Well
When: 2:30-3:30 p.m. March 8
Where: Venetian Sands Showroom

Remote Patient Monitoring: A Mississippi Success Story

The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Center for Telehealth has been operating the Mississippi Diabetes Telehealth Network since 2014. What began as a pilot to treat people with uncontrolled diabetes living in the has grown into a broader program to monitor patients who have other chronic conditions — with reimbursement.
Speakers: Michael Adcock, Executive Director, UMMC Center For Telehealth; Tearsanee Davis, Director, Clinical and Advanced Practice Operations, UMMC Center for Telehealth
When: 2:30-3:30 p.m. March 8
Where: Venetian Palazzo E

Bricks and Mortar of a Telehealth Initiative

The Medical University of South Carolina built its own app to integrate its electronic health record platform and telehealth tools. The software, which was part of an effort to deliver patient-centered care to better manage people with health disease after surgery and, ultimately, reduce 30-day readmission rates. Speakers will share success stories along with lessons learned in the initiative, which has blossomed into an infrastructure for engaging patients with various chronic conditions by enabling self-care when appropriate.
Speakers: Laurie Eccleston, Manager of Clinical Informatics, MUSC Health; Suzanne Richardson, Program Coordinator, MUSC Health
When: 4 – 5 p.m. March 8
Where: Venetian Palazzo E