scholarly journals Telehealth in the Context of COVID-19: Changing Perspectives in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Fisk ◽  
Anne Livingstone ◽  
Sabrina Winona Pit
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Older People ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The United Kingdom

BACKGROUND On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. On that date, there were 134,576 reported cases and 4981 deaths worldwide. By March 26, 2020, just 2 weeks later, reported cases had increased four-fold to 531,865, and deaths increased five-fold to 24,073. Older people are both major users of telehealth services and are more likely to die as a result of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE This paper examines the extent that Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, during the 2 weeks following the pandemic announcement, sought to promote telehealth as a tool that could help identify COVID-19 among older people who may live alone, be frail, or be self-isolating, and give support to or facilitate the treatment of people who are or may be infected. METHODS This paper reports, for the 2-week period previously mentioned and immediately prior, on activities and initiatives in the three countries taken by governments or their agencies (at national or state levels) together with publications or guidance issued by professional, trade, and charitable bodies. Different sources of information are drawn upon that point to the perceived likely benefits of telehealth in fighting the pandemic. It is not the purpose of this paper to draw together or analyze information that reflects growing knowledge about COVID-19, except where telehealth is seen as a component. RESULTS The picture that emerges for the three countries, based on the sources identified, shows a number of differences. These differences center on the nature of their health services, the extent of attention given to older people (and the circumstances that can relate to them), the different geographies (notably concerned with rurality), and the changes to funding frameworks that could impact these. Common to all three countries is the value attributed to maintaining quality safeguards in the wider context of their health services but where such services are noted as sometimes having precluded significant telehealth use. CONCLUSIONS The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing changes and may help to establish telehealth more firmly in its aftermath. Some of the changes may not be long-lasting. However, the momentum is such that telehealth will almost certainly find a stronger place within health service frameworks for each of the three countries and is likely to have increased acceptance among both patients and health care providers.

scholarly journals Telehealth in the Context of COVID-19: Changing Perspectives in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

10.2196/19264 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. e19264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Fisk ◽  
Anne Livingstone ◽  
Sabrina Winona Pit
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Older People ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The United Kingdom

Background On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. On that date, there were 134,576 reported cases and 4981 deaths worldwide. By March 26, 2020, just 2 weeks later, reported cases had increased four-fold to 531,865, and deaths increased five-fold to 24,073. Older people are both major users of telehealth services and are more likely to die as a result of COVID-19. Objective This paper examines the extent that Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, during the 2 weeks following the pandemic announcement, sought to promote telehealth as a tool that could help identify COVID-19 among older people who may live alone, be frail, or be self-isolating, and give support to or facilitate the treatment of people who are or may be infected. Methods This paper reports, for the 2-week period previously mentioned and immediately prior, on activities and initiatives in the three countries taken by governments or their agencies (at national or state levels) together with publications or guidance issued by professional, trade, and charitable bodies. Different sources of information are drawn upon that point to the perceived likely benefits of telehealth in fighting the pandemic. It is not the purpose of this paper to draw together or analyze information that reflects growing knowledge about COVID-19, except where telehealth is seen as a component. Results The picture that emerges for the three countries, based on the sources identified, shows a number of differences. These differences center on the nature of their health services, the extent of attention given to older people (and the circumstances that can relate to them), the different geographies (notably concerned with rurality), and the changes to funding frameworks that could impact these. Common to all three countries is the value attributed to maintaining quality safeguards in the wider context of their health services but where such services are noted as sometimes having precluded significant telehealth use. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing changes and may help to establish telehealth more firmly in its aftermath. Some of the changes may not be long-lasting. However, the momentum is such that telehealth will almost certainly find a stronger place within health service frameworks for each of the three countries and is likely to have increased acceptance among both patients and health care providers.

scholarly journals Assisted Conception: Health Services and Evaluation

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. L. Lancaster
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pregnancy Rates ◽  
Assisted Conception ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Standardized Reporting

AbstractComparison of assisted conception in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States indicates that further rapid growth in services is likely in many countries. Better data on pregnancy rates and the outcome of pregnancy, as well as standardized reporting of national results, are needed to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.

scholarly journals Health professions regulation in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-155
Author(s):  
Jean Moore
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Access Problems ◽  
Demand For Health

The regulation of health professions in the United States is a primary responsibility of states. The structure and content of the specific regulations of each state impact the provision of health services, affecting costs, quality and access. There is concern that current state-based and profession-specific regulatory structures cannot serve as a basis for the innovations the health workforce needs for health reform. This paper reviews aspects of state-based health professions regulations that limit the effective use of health workers and also one of its key advantages: their ability to provide local solutions to address access problems. The paper describes elements that generate changes in the demand for health services and health care providers. Finally, strategies are recommended to improve decision-making related to practice including: standardization of practice scopes between different states; permanent updating of specific acts of professional practice in each state, in accordance with the evolution of professional competencies; use of the best evidence to authorize new professions or expand the scope of practice of the existing ones and, when this evidence does not exist, to promote programs to test new modalities of work. Taking into account the pace of changes in the health system in the United States, there is a growing urgency for reforms to ensure adequate size and training of the workforce for the future.

Framing the issue of ageing and health care spending in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Gusmano ◽  
Sara Allin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Older People ◽  
Health Care Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Intergenerational Equity ◽  
Health Care Spending ◽  
The United Kingdom

AbstractPolitical debates about the affordability of health care programmes in high-income countries often point to population ageing as a threat to sustainability. Debates in the United States, in particular, highlight concerns about intergenerational equity, whereby spending on older people is perceived as a threat to spending on the young. This paper compares how the problem of health spending is defined in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States by presenting the results of a content analysis of print media during the period 2005–2010. We found that population ageing was cited as an important source of health care cost increases in all three countries but was cited less frequently in Canadian newspapers than in the UK or US papers. Direct claims about intergenerational equity are infrequent among the articles we coded, but newspaper articles in the United States were more likely than those in Canada and the United Kingdom to claim that of high health care spending on older people takes resources away from younger people. In Canada a much larger percentage of articles in our sample either claimed that high health care spending is crowding out other types of government expenditure. Finally, we found that almost no articles in the United States challenged the view that population ageing causes health care spending, whereas in both Canada and the United Kingdom a small, but steady stream of articles challenged the idea that population ageing is to blame for health care spending increases.

scholarly journals The Influence of Media Coverage and Governmental Policies on Google Queries Related to COVID-19 Cutaneous Symptoms: Infodemiology Study

10.2196/25651 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. e25651
Author(s):  
Solene Huynh Dagher ◽  
Guillaume Lamé ◽  
Thomas Hubiche ◽  
Khaled Ezzedine ◽  
Tu Anh Duong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
World Health ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Internet Searches ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Background During COVID-19, studies have reported the appearance of internet searches for disease symptoms before their validation by the World Health Organization. This suggested that monitoring of these searches with tools including Google Trends may help monitor the pandemic itself. In Europe and North America, dermatologists reported an unexpected outbreak of cutaneous acral lesions (eg, chilblain-like lesions) in April 2020. However, external factors such as public communications may also hinder the use of Google Trends as an infodemiology tool. Objective The study aimed to assess the impact of media announcements and lockdown enforcement on internet searches related to cutaneous acral lesions during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Methods Two searches on Google Trends, including daily relative search volumes for (1) “toe” or “chilblains” and (2) “coronavirus,” were performed from January 1 to May 16, 2020, with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany as the countries of choice. The ratio of interest over time in “chilblains” and “coronavirus” was plotted. To assess the impact of lockdown enforcement and media coverage on these internet searches, we performed an interrupted time-series analysis for each country. Results The ratio of interest over time in “chilblains” to “coronavirus” showed a constant upward trend. In France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, lockdown enforcement was associated with a significant slope change for “chilblain” searches with a variation coefficient of 1.06 (SE 0.42) (P=0.01), 1.04 (SE 0.28) (P<.01), and 1.21 (SE 0.44) (P=0.01), respectively. After media announcements, these ratios significantly increased in France, Spain, Italy, and the United States with variation coefficients of 18.95 (SE 5.77) (P=.001), 31.31 (SE 6.31) (P<.001), 14.57 (SE 6.33) (P=.02), and 11.24 (SE 4.93) (P=.02), respectively, followed by a significant downward trend in France (–1.82 [SE 0.45]), Spain (–1.10 [SE 0.38]), and Italy (–0.93 [SE 0.33]) (P<.001, P=0.004, and P<.001, respectively). The adjusted R2 values were 0.311, 0.351, 0.325, and 0.305 for France, Spain, Italy, and the United States, respectively, suggesting an average correlation between time and the search volume; however, this correlation was weak for Germany and the United Kingdom. Conclusions To date, the association between chilblain-like lesions and COVID-19 remains controversial; however, our results indicate that Google queries of “chilblain” were highly influenced by media coverage and government policies, indicating that caution should be exercised when using Google Trends as a monitoring tool for emerging diseases.

Fit for the Future: Lessons for the United States

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-806
Author(s):  
R. J. H.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Child Health Services ◽  
White House ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Special Committees

The United States has its tradition of White House Conferences; the United Kingdom has its Royal Commissions or Special Committees. The report of the Committee on Child Health Services,1 which took three years for a "far reaching inquiry" on how to improve child health services in the United Kingdom, is in this tradition of both countries. It is a report well worth the waiting and worth careful thought by pediatricians and policymakers in the United States. Volume 1, 448 pages long, is the body of the report. Volume 2 is a statistical appendix. At the outset, any reviewer of this extensive work must limit his comments to only a few areas that seem most pertinent to our own scene.

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