The Advisory Board Company, a DC-based best practices law firm, recently released the results from its 2016 Telehealth Survey. Results indicate that clinicians are becoming more interested in using telemedicine to deliver services, and that telebehavioral, telemental, and telepsychiatry delivery models are trending upward. Twenty-two percent of questions in 2016 received by The Advisory Board Company were related to psychiatry and behavioral health, and the Company points to market expansion of consumer-facing, live video platforms as partially driving this trend. Vew more here.

Telepsychiatry Toolkit

View all of the topics covered in the Telepsychiatry Toolkit.

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It is of no surprise to the APA that telemental health—including telepsychiatry—services are trending upward. To help psychiatrists who are interested in learning to practice telepsychiatry, the APA’s “Learning to Do Telemental Health” section of its Telepsychiatry Toolkit offers some tips on how to get started with live video sessions:

• Maintain the standard of care and quality of service, just as you would for an in-person session
• Be aware of how your appearance comes across the screen, including what you wear, how much you need to vocally project, how to direct your gaze, and so on.
• Consider adapting an “opening script” for new evaluations so that the patient is aware of how telepsychiatry works, what they can expect, etc., in order to put the patient at ease and prime them for the session.