Telehealth: Can Healthcare Simulation Provide Opportunities for Collaboration?

Abstract

The Health Resources Services Administration defines telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical healthcare. Telehealth is becoming one of the disruptive technologies that will transform healthcare in the 21st century. Clinical implementation of telehealth has occurred in nursing and physical therapy. Concurrently, use of health care simulations in academia has occurred recently. The aim of this short communication is provide clinical perspectives from physical therapy and nursing in order to advance telehealth collaborations. One opportunity in academia is to further investigate telehealth healthcare simulation as an interprofessional collaboration between curricula. Future studies must address access, cost, and chronic disease management in telehealth collaborations.