HHS Data Council
Joint Working Group on Telemedicine
Goals:
Coordinate and advance Federal strategies for overcoming the barriers to the
effective use of telemedicine in the United States and, where appropriate,
internationally.
Background:
The rapid dissemination and evolution of electronic information technologies
raises issues beyond those of interoperability and shared standards. This
working group includes representatives of all Federal agencies with active
telemedicine programs and serves as an effective mechanism to raise and resolve
these issues.
Membership and contact information
Work Plan:
This working group has developed a detailed workplan that covers eight areas
of activity:
- Utilizing the interactive capabilities of the Internet, develop an ongoing
telemedicine inventory, geographic information system, and evaluation data base
for Federally funded projects that can be easily maintained and ultimately
expanded to encompass state and private-sector funded projects.
- Create an evaluation framework that will allow federal agencies to more
effectively share and interpret evaluation results across projects funded.
- Clarify FDA policies regarding telemedicine.
- Recommend options to both the Administration and the Congress for
overcoming the legal barriers to telemedicine.
- Promote cost-effective payment policies for telemedicine.
- Assist the Federal Communications Commission in developing Federal
regulatory policies that promote building of the information infrastructure in
rural and underserved urban communities.
- Explore the development of a Federal or federally-sponsored telemedicine
laboratory to assess the efficacy and technical reliability of commercially
available telemedicine technologies.
- Prepare a report to the Congress by January 31, 1997, in accordance with
the requirements of the recent Telecommunications Reform Act (P.L. 104-104).
The complete
Telemedicine Work Plan includes detailed lists of
action items in each area.
Accomplishments:
The following documents are the products of this Committee to date. Work in
progress is not linked.
Other Links:
There are many organizations working on telemedicine at different levels,
from policy to implementation guides. The following list of some of the
telemedicine organizations provides links to their web pages where they are
known.
Comments/suggestions about the HHS Data Council web pages should be directed to Data Council Secretariat.
Last updated 7/24/97.
