 - Inequity in Healthcare 
 - Costs of Healthcare 
 - Accessibility of Healthcare

Addressing Inequity, Costs, and Accessibility 

1. The makeup of our population is following a trend in which birthrates are decreasing whilst life expectancy is increasing; older people often experience chronic illness which accounts for a large part of the cost increases observed.


2. Advancement in technology such as diagnostic tools, medicine, and medical devices. Although they do contribute to positive health outcomes, they also account for rising costs.

3. Advances in public awareness and health sophistication increase demand for medical care.

4. Finally, inconsistencies in our systems: discontinuities in patient care, inefficiencies in financing and delivery of care, and increased observability of unhealthy lifestyles have all contributed to the issue.

Reasons for increased costs in healthcare

Telehealth's goals, increasing quality, and coverage of healthcare are especially pronounced when dealing with Chronic Diseases. Chronic Diseases are often very costly even though they are common and easily preventable (Approximately 70% of all U.S. deaths are a result of Chronic Diseases). Telehealth's involvement and engagement with patients – their symptoms and care – is what allows it to be considered as an effective way of responding to chronic diseases. 

Expanding Telehealth to Assist in Chronic Disease Management 

Telemedicine and Telehealth serve to:

 - make medicine and healthcare more accessible for all 
 - reduces inequity in the obtainment of medicine 
 - reduces costs related to healthcare services, vital for a time in which healthcare costs are soaring 
 - allows for a redistribution of quality (in terms of healthcare services)

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Telehealth or Telemedicine are broad terms that define the delivery of healthcare or medical care via electronic methods such as through mobile devices or with the help of Information and Communication technology.

Telehealth / Telemedicine as Interventions in Psychology 

1. Mobile Mental Health Support/Mental Health Apps
3. Teleconferencing
4. Virtual Reality
5. Artificial Intelligence 

Examples of technological advances in mental health care: 

Bashshur, R. L., Shannon, G. W., Smith, B. R., Alverson, D. C., Antoniotti, N., Barsan, W. G., Bashshur, N., Brown, E. M., Coye, M. J., Doarn, C. R., Ferguson, S., Grigsby, J., Krupinski, E. A., Kvedar, J. C., Linkous, J., Merrell, R. C., Nesbitt, T., Poropatich, R., Rheuban, K. S., … Yellowlees, P. (2014, September). The empirical foundations of telemedicine interventions for chronic disease management. Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4148063/. 

The Empirical Foundations of Telemedicine Interventions for Chronic Disease Management

Goals of Telemedicine / Telehealth 

 - Aboriginal people from Australia used "message sticks" to relay information regarding disease and death. 
 - During the 17th century, medicine was practiced "in absentia" as practitioners took urine samples and examined them based on Greek-based uroscopy charts.
- During the American Civil War, in order to detect the location and movement of troops, the Signal Corps was developed which relied heavily on the telegraph. Under then Surgeon-turned-Major Albert Albert Myer, the telegraph was used to request medical supplies and assist in the transport of patients.

* more found within referenced article

Important uses of telemedicine throughout history

 - choice of study design and sample design
 - measurement tools
 - analytic methodology 
 - settings / environments
 - Choice of populations (illness severity)
 - Implementation and Implications as a result 

How Telemedicine is Evaluated

- crisis text/call lines
- sophisticated mental health apps 

Technological Advances in Mental Health Care: Mobile Mental Health Support 

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated 3D environment different from the real world and generally viewed through a headset.

Virtual Reality

Technological intelligence designed by humans, displayed through machines instead of humans.  
Intelligent agents - In relation to artificial intelligence, it is the machine or the program that intakes information from its environment and processes that information to achieve certain goals. 

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