The American Telemedicine Association (ATA), an organization which promotes remote healthcare technologies, today announced the launch of the ATA Mobile Health (mHealth) and ATA Student Member Discussion Groups, according to a story at finance.yahoo.com.
The Mobile Health Discussion Group will provide a forum to study and solve issues related to mHealth. The group will bring together providers, payors, consumers and industry, to establish this medical tool, according to the story at finance.yahoo.com. The mHealth Discussion Group is open to all association members and the initial chair of the group is Sunil Hazaray, former President and CEO of Viterion TeleHealthcare.
mHealth is a medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, PDAs, and other wireless devices, which allows patients to be monitored remotely and physicians and their patients to be in touch while not physically present. It’s an umbrella term for wireless devices that are used in healthcare, according to pc.mag.com.
“For nearly two decades, ATA has pushed for quality healthcare through advanced telecommunications technology. Wireless telecommunications, including digital phones, area networking and related applications are important enabling technologies to this end,” said Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the ATA, in the online story.
Mobile healthcare was a major focus of the May 2011 ATA Conference in Tampa, Florida, which attracted over 3,500 attendees, according to the company. The meeting included over 400 presentations including ones on mHealth.
ATA’s Student Discussion Group will provide an opportunity for its student membership to get more deeply involved in the subject, develop networking channels, and improve access to ATA resources. The group’s goal is to focus on raising student awareness, understanding, and applications of telemedicine in the healthcare arena.
The ATA promotes the use of advanced remote medical technologies to improve the quality, equity and affordability of healthcare, according to the online story.
Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
