Telehealth: The Great Equalizer

By Samantha Kleindienst Robler, John Kokesh, Susan D. Emmett, and Philip Hofstetter

This article is a part of the March/April 2020, Volume 32, Number 2, Audiology Today issue.

Geographical distance and provider shortage in the state of Alaska make access to specialist health care, such as audiology, difficult. To address this challenge, Alaska has developed a homegrown telehealth network that connects small rural community clinics to specialists. Pre- and post-operative care, management of otologic disease and hearing loss, hearing aid programming, and newborn hearing screening follow-up are a few examples of telehealth-based services provided by audiologists in remote Alaska.

Role of Telehealth 

Seventy-seven million people in the United States live in designated health professional shortage areas, with 62 percent in rural areas and 31 percent in non-rural areas (Health Resources and Services Administration, 2019). Shortages in health-care professionals prevent access to timely care. Access limits are further exacerbated by a lack of basic insurance coverage (Institute of Medicine, 2009). Telehealth, or the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another through electronic communications to improve a patient’s health (American Telemedicine Association), is a powerful tool for delivering cost-effective access to state-of-the-art medical expertise. Telehealth is not a separate specialty but rather a method for delivering health care, and if implemented well, can be the great equalizer in access to medical care across the population.