ATA Begins 2022 Forming Alliances and Launching New Groups
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) is one of the only organizations in the US focused solely on advancing telehealth. The organization’s mission is to ensure that everyone has adequate access to affordable, safe, and appropriate care. As such, the organization is comprised of and collaborates with a vast number of entities, including healthcare networks, technology providers, academic institutions, and partner organizations, among others.
In the backdrop of the ATA’s work, reliance on telehealth increased because of the pandemic, and although the crisis is less severe, telehealth has come to stay, according to an American Medical Association 2022 article. Eighty-five percent of physicians reported that telehealth improved timeliness of care, and 75 percent of the physicians said it facilitated better care. Overall, 70 percent of physicians were motivated to use this technological tool.
These figures illustrate the ATA’s move toward launching a group that advocates for establishing telehealth policy. The ATA began 2022 strong by launching a new organization to advance telehealth and making a significant alliance with a health industry-focused organization. ATA Action is the group launched in late January designed to facilitate the enactment of state and federal telehealth coverage and payment policies that would provide access to all Americans, especially for residents living in rural and underserved communities.
Providing access is essential to ATA Action, as it increases the effectiveness and safety of healthcare. As it stands, ATA Action follows the ATA’s policy principles by enlightening medical personnel and public members on the use of technology to reimagine care. However, one of its immediate priorities is to ensure temporary policies established to deal with COVID remain in place until 2023, in addition to making these policies permanent.
Executive Director of ATA Action, Kyle Zebley, stated that telehealth had been a lifeline to patients with little or no access to healthcare in the past two years. Further, creating this group has been an essential step in making sure virtual care (or telehealth) will be crucial in making healthcare accessible in the future.
Later in January, the ATA announced its collaboration with the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance). This collaboration will culminate in supporting the Global Health Connector Partnership (GHCP), an initiative that focuses on advancing digital health worldwide and finding efficient ways to provide healthcare.
This year the GHCP will host a series of co-located events and activities designed to bridge the gaps in digital health globally through devising solutions to universal issues that all healthcare systems experience around the globe. This will occur through the combined efforts of group members, health networks, the telehealth community, and practitioners in Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Commonwealth, and India.
The ATA and ECHAlliance share a common goal in addressing digital healthcare solutions and some of the world’s most challenging healthcare issues. Additionally, the pandemic shed light on the fact that the issues related to disparities, staffing, and climate are the same in the US as they are around the globe. CEO of ATA Ann Mond Johnson stated in a late January 2022 release that the ATA Annual Conference and Expo is one place where these global issues will be addressed.
