Telehealth in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics

• Published in: Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics Vol. 33; no. 8; pp. 656 - 665
• Main Authors: SOARES, Neelkamal S, LANGKAMP, Diane L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 01-10-2012; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Ovid Technologies
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Caregivers - education; Child; Child Development; Developmental psychology; Health care delivery; Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Labor shortages; Licensure, Medical; Medical personnel; Medical sciences; Patient Education as Topic; Pediatrics; Pediatrics - legislation & jurisprudence; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Telemedicine; Telemedicine - legislation & jurisprudence; United States; United States; Human; Pediatrics; Accessibility; Telemedicine; telehealth; Development; Behavior; access to care; Child
• ISSN: 0196-206X; 1536-7312
• DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0b013e3182690741

Developmental-behavioral pediatrics (DBP) is recognized as one of the fields with the greatest shortages of pediatric subspecialists. Families who access care often must travel great distances to tertiary academic medical centers or endure long waiting lists. While the shortages are likely to persist due to limited provider availability and an increasing number of children with developmental and behavioral disorders being identified, our field must look to innovative ways to reduce the barriers to access. One such way is telehealth, the use of videoconferencing to deliver DBP services to underserved populations. We aim to describe the practical uses of telehealth for the delivery of diagnostic and management clinical services in a variety of settings and for the additional educational and research benefits of the modality. We will highlight the obstacles to setting up a successful DBP telehealth practice and direct readers to resources to address these in their communities. Most of all, we will demonstrate the benefit to families and children, practitioners, and health care systems of supplementing traditional in-person DBP services with telehealth modalities to enhance outreach and engagement with communities.