The TECKpert team recently attended “The Doctor in Your Smartphone: Telehealth & Its Impact on the Healthcare Industry.” Healthcare organizations like AvMed and UHealth, both sponsors of the event, are making telehealth part of their long term strategic plan. The panel featured telehealth experts: Dr. Anne E. Burdick of the University of Miami; Dr. Deborah Mulligan of Nova Southeastern and MDLIVE; Ivette Ruiz, RN, AvMed VP; and Dr. Michael Shen, founder and CMO of a South Florida-based telemedicine service, Duxlink Health.The panel foresaw telehealth imparting substantial benefits to providers and patients, both of whom can benefit from efficient resource allocation. Other upsides of telehealth include lower cost, streamlined administration, and easier access to preventative care, which can in turn minimize the use of the ER as a primary source of care.Here are five key takeaways from the telehealth seminar:

1. The importance of tech interoperability. The panelists identified interoperability as the next big challenge for growing telehealth. Providers need to be able to integrate their existing internal systems, as well as connect with outside systems, to make telemedicine growth feasible.
2. As in other tech spaces, regulatory turf battles will be a sticking point, including (but not limited to) moving across state lines.
3. One of the biggest upsides to telehealth is getting closer to finding the “golden egg”- the key intervention point that will help providers and patients to successfully maximize health outcomes and minimize last-resort care consumption.
4. Telehealth is changing rapidly-- it’s no longer being used just as a solution for rural areas and healthcare deserts.
5. The opportunities for growth in the shared tech-healthcare space are endless. The panel named Miami as a market primed to benefit from telehealth expansion.