Telepatologia

ATA Clinical Guidelines for Telepathology

Pantanowitz Liron, Dickinson Kim, Evans Andrew J., Hassell Lewis A., Henricks Walter H., Lennerz Jochen K., Lowe Amanda, Parwani Anil V., Riben Michael, Smith COL Daniel, Tuthill J. Mark, Weinstein Ronald S., Wilbur David C., Krupinski Elizabeth A., and Bernard Jordana. 

Telemedicine and e-Health. November 2014, 20(11): 1049-1056.

doi:10.1089/tmj.2014.9976. 

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) brings together diverse groups from traditional medicine, academia, technology and telecommunications companies, e-health, allied professional and nursing associations, medical societies, government, and others to overcome barriers to the advancement of telemedicine through the professional, ethical, and equitable improvement in healthcare delivery.

ATA has embarked on an effort to establish practice guidelines for telemedicine to help advance the science and to assure the uniform quality of service to patients. They are developed by panels that include experts from the field and other strategic stakeholders and are designed to serve as both an operational reference and an educational tool to aid in providing appropriate care for patients. The guidelines generated by ATA undergo a thorough consensus and rigorous review, with final approval by the ATA Board of Directors. Existing products are reviewed and updated periodically.

The purpose of these guidelines is to assist practitioners in pursuing a sound course of action to provide effective and safe medical care that is founded on current information, available resources, and patient needs. The guidelines recognize that safe and effective practices require specific training, skills, and techniques, as described in each document. The resulting products are properties of the ATA, and any reproduction or modification of the published guideline must receive prior approval by the ATA.

The practice of medicine is an integration of both the science and art of preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases. Accordingly, it should be recognized that compliance with these guidelines alone will not guarantee accurate diagnoses or successful outcomes. If circumstances warrant, a practitioner may responsibly pursue an alternate course of action different from the established guidelines. A divergence from the guidelines may be indicated when, in the reasonable judgment of the practitioner, the condition of the patient, restrictions or limits on available resources, or advances in information or technology occur subsequent to publication of the guidelines. Nonetheless, a practitioner who uses an approach that is significantly different from these guidelines is strongly advised to provide documentation, in the patient record, that is adequate to explain the approach pursued.

Likewise, the technical and administrative guidelines in this document do not purport to establish binding legal standards for carrying out telemedicine interactions. Rather, they are the result of the accumulated knowledge and expertise of the ATA Working Groups and other leading experts in the field, and they are intended to improve the technical quality and reliability of telemedicine encounters. The technical aspects of and administrative procedures for specific telemedicine arrangements may vary depending on the individual circumstances, including location of the parties, resources, and nature of the interaction.

To read the online paper, click here.

Telemedicine and e-Health is the leading international peer-reviewed journal covering the full spectrum of advances and clinical applications of telemedicine and management of electronic health records. It places special emphasis on the outcome and impact of telemedicine on the quality, cost effectiveness, and access to healthcare. Telemedicine applications play an increasingly important role in health care. They offer indispensable tools for home healthcare, remote patient monitoring, and disease management, not only for rural health and battlefield care, but also for nursing home, assisted living facilities, and maritime and aviation settings.

Telemedicine and e-Health offers timely coverage of the advances in technology that offer practitioners, medical centers, and hospitals new and innovative options for managing patient care, electronic records, and medical billing.

Telemedicine and e-Health coverage includes:

• Clinical telemedicine practice
• Technical advances
• Medical connectivity
• Enabling technologies
• Education
• Health policy and regulation
• Biomedical and health services research

Telemedicine and e-Health is under the editorial leadership of Editors-in-Chief Ronald C. Merrell, MD, Virginia Commonwealth University; Charles R. Doarn, MBA, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati; and other leading investigators. View the entire editorial board.

Audience: Remote patient monitoring professionals; biomedical informatics technologists; extreme, rural, and urban environment patient care specialists; experts in telecommunications technology and R & D; among others