Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has faced many barriers for uptake in healthcare systems. Especially in psychiatry, where medication an integral, if not guaranteed, part of treatment, access to prescriptions is an issue that must be overcome in order for telehealth in psychiatry to progress. During the COVID-19 pandemic, regulation regarding prescriptions have been lowered in order to maintain social distancing when accessing medication; the main regulation is that in some states, prescriptions can be issued without previous in-person examinations. As of now, it is unclear whether or not these reduced regulations are going to persist after the pandemic has been controlled but in order for telehealth to be effectively implemented, these regulations must be further considered in the future.

Ease of Prescription

HIPAA is the main method through which patient privacy is protected. Currently, HIPAA does not address telehealth, an important part of patient interaction during this pandemic, and if telehealth continues to be utilized by healthcare systems in the future, HIPAA must address telehealth systems. Because patient outreach is such an important part of healthcare systems, especially when facing transportation issues or other related barriers, telehealth must be very carefully considered for future use. Along with addressing privacy, when handling the various needs of psychiatric patients, telehealth should be considered for expanded use. 

Expanding Virtual Care and Privacy

- Ease of Prescription
- Expanding Virtual Care and Privacy

Ohio State University, Columbus

- Psychiatry 
- Emergency Medicine
- Clinical Research

Specific Healthcare Systems

- A novel use of telehealth in emergency medicine

Emergency Medicine

Psychiatry

Going into the future of clinical research, a blended approach of both in-person and telehealth patient interaction must be considered. Some of the telehealth approaches moving forward could be connecting to patients via virtual outreach (videos explaining procedures, etc.), collecting remote informed consent, and telephone or video-based intervention. The most important thing to consider after the pandemic, is the implementation of HIPAA in various telehealth practices as patient privacy must be considered above all else. Of course, not all practices can be achieved through telehealth, like biospecimen collection, but a blended approach would go a long way for the future of clinical research.

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