Understanding Health Communications Technologies provides a hands-on guide for students and professionals for effective investment in deployment  of management of communication technologies in health settings.  Employing case studies that enhance understanding and insight this book guides readers in appropriate technology selection, and long-term strategic management. This book provides an overview of the distribution and use of communication technologies within the health field and includes information about current and emerging synchronous and asynchronous health care communications technologies. It is filled with illustrative examples of real-life projects that have succeeded and provides lessons learned from projects that failed. The thirty-eight case studies cover topics such as management and operations, implementation, communication, outcomes, education, patient care, policy, unique applications, and technology.  In addition, each case study includes discussion questions and references. Written by editors Pamela Whitten and David Cook and a panel of highly experienced contributors, this book offers students and health care professionals practical approaches to evaluating and selecting communications technologies for improving health services delivery.

Pamela Whitten is an associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Michigan State University. She is also a senior research fellow for Michigan State University’s Institute of Healthcare Studies.

David Cook is director of Health and Technology Outreach at the Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.

Figures, Tables, and Exhibits.

Preface.

Foreword
Jonathan D. Linkous

The Editors

The Contributors

PART ONE: IMPLEMENTATION

1. Problems with Implementation: The Story of a Home Telecare Trial
Frances S. Mair, Derek Hibbert, Carl R. May, Robert Angus, Tracy Finch, Angela Boland, Jane O’Connor, Alan Haycox, Chris Roberts, Simon Capewell

2. Challenges in Launching a Malaysian Teleconsulting Network
Richard Wootton, Mohamad Suhaimi Mohamad Tahir

3. Social Aspects of Implementing a Medical Information System: Cure or Symptom?
Ronald E. Rice

4. Telemedicine at Shriners Hospitals for Children: One Size Does Not Fit All
Mark L. Niederpruem, Robert Gerding, Mary E. Kautto, Peter Armstrong, Jana L. C. Lindsey, Katherine Y. Vigil, Cary Burcham, Michael Moushui, Shannon M. Lehman, Donald Lighter

PART TWO: MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

5. Home Telehealth: Overcoming Buy-In Issues
Bonnie Perry Britton, Rhonda Chetney

6. A Model for Persuading Decision Makers and Finding New Partners
Glen Effertz, Steven Beffort, Alistair Preston, Frank D. Pullara, Dale C. Alverson

7. Leadership Issues Facing an E-Start-Up Management Team
James Patterson, Gary M. Shulman

8. A Health Care Information System in Greece: Key Factors, Self-Organization, and Take-Home Lessons
Angelina Kouroubali, Don E. Detmer, Manolis Tsiknakis, Stelios Orphanoudakis

9. The Anatomy of Failure? Teledermatology in an English City
Carl R. May, Maggie Mort, Tracy Finch, Frances S. Mair

PART THREE: COMMUNICATION

10. Research as Dialogue: Health Communication and Behavior Change in Patients' Natural Habitat
Linda M. Harris, Rita Kobb, Patricia Ryan, Adam Darkins, Gary L. Kreps

11. Diagnosing the Communication Infrastructure in Order to Reach Target Audiences: A Study of Hispanic Communities in Los Angeles
Pauline Hope Cheong, Holley A. Wilkin, Sandra Ball-Rokeach

12. The Role of Telehospice in End-of-Life Care
Collette M. Clemens, Beverly Davenport Sypher, Gary C. Doolittle

13. Doctor and Patient Interactions During Telemedicine: Clashes of Perceptions and Reality
Jeanine W. Turner, James D. Robinson, Adil Alaoui, James F. Winchester, Alan Neustadtl, Walid Gabriel Tohme, Betty A. Levine, Jeff Collmann, Seong K. Mun

PART FOUR: OUTCOMES

14. Teletherapy for Childhood Depression: Where Is the Evidence?
Eve-Lynn Nelson

15. Serving Children with Disabilities in Rural Iowa
Dennis C. Harper

16. Crisis Telehealth as a Cost Management Strategy
Susan L. Dimmick, Samuel G. Burgiss, Nikki Cook

17. Using Point-of-Care to Reduce Medication Errors
Chris L. Tucker, Russell Carlson

18. The United Kingdom Virtual Outreach Project
Paul Wallace

19. The Financial Side of a Tele-Oncology Practice
Gary C. Doolittle, Ashley Spaulding, Ryan Spaulding

PART FIVE: EDUCATION

20. The Role of the Internet in Prostate Cancer Survivors' Illness Narratives
Michael Irvin Arrington

21. Successful Web Site Construction and Management: Harnessing the Skill and Enthusiasm of Volunteers
Marlene M. Maheu, Joseph P. McMenamin

22. Multimedia Education for Gestational Diabetes Patients
Deborah C. Glik, Sally F. Shaw, Gloria M. Chinea, Amy Myerson

23. New Paradigms for Continuing Education: Training Providers How to Use Technology
Thomas S. Nesbitt, Thu P. Tran, Jana Katz

24. Telehealth in Cyberspace: Virtual Reality for Distance Learning in Health Education and Training
Dale C. Alverson, Stanley M. Saiki Jr., Thomas P. Caudell

25. The SEEDS Project: From Health Care Information System to Innovative Educational Strategy
Judith J. Warren, Katherine A. Fletcher, Helen R. Connors, Anita Ground, Charlotte Weaver

PART SIX: UNIQUE APPLICATIONS

26. Bringing Care Home to the Rural Elderly: Clinician and Patient Satisfaction with Telehealth Communication
Carma L. Bylund, Bonnie Wakefield, Jane E. Morse, Annette M. Ray

27. Systemwide Rollout of Doctor-Patient Secure Web Messaging: The University of California, Davis, Virtual Care Experience
Eric M. Liederman, Eric M. Zimmerman, Marcos A. Athanasoulis, Margaret A. C. Young

28. Low-Vision Reaching Out Through Telemedicine: The Process of Implementing One Ophthalmic Subspecialty
Jade S. Schiffman, Gina G. Wong, Rosa A. Tang

29. Internet-Based Specialty Consultations: A Study of Adoption Challenges
Paul Heinzelmann, Joseph Kvedar

30. Telerehabilitation: A Harvest of Multidisciplinary Services
Cynthia Scheideman-Miller

PART SEVEN: TECHNOLOGY

31. Sustainable Security: Building Virus and Vulnerability Management into an Organization's Culture
C. Scott Blanchette, David T. Noll

32. Designing Technology: A Case of Vendor and Provider Partnership
Audrey Kinsella, Kim Lee, Brenda Ecken

33. Behind the Applications: Making Technology Transparent
Sally R. Davis, Pamela Whitten

PART EIGHT: POLICY

34. Policy and the Origins of the Arizona Statewide Telemedicine Program
Ronald S. Weinstein, Gail Barker, Sandy Beinar, Michael Holcomb, Elizabeth A. Krupinski, Ana Maria Lopez, Alison Hughes, Richard A. McNeely

35. The Long and Winding Road to Medicare Reimbursement
Joseph A. Tracy, Karen E. Edison

36. Addressing Barriers to Access for Uninsured in Western New York State: WNYhelpnet.org
Thomas Hugh Feeley, Denise M. Rizzo, Jeannine M. Osborne

37. Using Computer Technologies to Provide Relevant Cancer Information to Vulnerable Populations: The NCI Digital Divide Pilot Projects
Gary L. Kreps, David H. Gustafson, Peter Salovey, Rosemarie Slevin Perocchia, Wayne Wilbright, Mary Anne Bright, Cathy Muha, Carol C. Diamond

38. Bridging the Digital Divide: Lessons from the Health InterNetwork India
Joan Dzenowagis, Andrew Pleasant, Shyama Kuruvilla

Name Index

Subject Index