Title: National Telehealth Coordinators Workshop 2002 October 1-2, 2002, Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia

Investigator Name: Dr. Jocelyne Picot, lead applicant on behalf of the Canadian Society of Telehealth (CST) Education Committee

Project Completion Date: December 2002

Research Category: Workshop

Institution: Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation

Project Number: 6795-15-2001/4430009

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Summary

The 2002 National Telehealth Coordinators Workshop was held at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver, October 1-2, 2002. Sixty telehealth coordinators, representing all regions of the country, were invited to participate. The focus of activities over the two-day workshop was to assemble guidelines and tools to assist in decision making, promote best practices and improve consistency and efficiency of telehealth service delivery. In each of six subject areas, the following information was collected:

• Best Practices/Guidelines - common approaches and successes
• Lessons Learned - what didn't work and why
• Common Processes for Developing Policy/Guidelines
• Implications for a National Approach
• Outstanding Issues/Constraints
• Action Items/Next Steps

The report summarizes the recommendations developed by the workshop participants in the areas of telehealth consent; patient registration, documentation and records; job descriptions, roles and responsibilities; telehealth awareness and evaluation; telehealth training; and interoperability issues. Full documentation of the proceedings and a summary of action items generated from the recommendations can be found in the appendices of the final report.

In addition to the recommendations for guidelines in each of the subject areas, there were several key concluding messages arising from the 2002 National Telehealth Coordinators Workshop. These included the need for more information/input in specific priority areas; the need for more information exchange among telehealth programs/projects; the need for greater networking opportunities among Telehealth Coordinators; the need for a 'voice' representing the Telehealth Coordinators; and the need for some clear paths to escalate issues and action items. To maintain the activity and momentum of the Telehealth Coordinator group, the following initiatives were suggested and should be considered/evaluated for their merits and feasibility:

• The development of a formal Telehealth Coordinators group within the Canadian Society of Telehealth (CST)
• Creation of Special Interest or Working Groups
• Website and other technologies to facilitate networking between Coordinators
• Participation of Telehealth Coordinators in relevant subgroups of other Professional organizations (i.e.; Canadian Nurses Association (CNA))
• Future Telehealth Coordinator Workshops

The views expressed herein do not
necessarily represent the views of Health Canada

In addition to the above summary, the full report can be accessed in the following ways:

• The print version of the full report can be obtained in the language of submission from the Health Canada Library through inter-library loan.
• An electronic version of the report in the language of submission is available upon request from Health Canada by contacting the Research Management and Dissemination Division.

This research has been conducted with a financial contribution from Health Canada's Health Policy Research Program. For permission to reproduce all or part of the research report, please contact the Principal Investigator directly at the following address: jpicot@infotelmed.ca.

The Health Policy Research Program (HPRP) funds research that provides an evidence base for health Canada's policy decisions. The HPRP is a strategic and targeted program with a broad socio-economic orientation and connections to national and international endeavours. The research can be primary, secondary or synthesis research, a one-time contribution to a developing research endeavour, or a workshop, seminar or conference.